


Homeworld Bound

by CrossingTheFourthWall



Series: Maria's Adventures [11]
Category: Transformers: Prime
Genre: (there's a lot of that in this series), (you all know who), Gen, Mind Control, old world new faces, someone comes back from the dead!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2017-09-26
Packaged: 2018-12-13 17:28:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 51,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11764821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrossingTheFourthWall/pseuds/CrossingTheFourthWall
Summary: Maria has returned to her home dimension, only to find that more time has passed than she was expecting. Or less. Confronted with the fact that there are Cybertronians labeled as dead who are turning up in places they shouldn't be, she quickly moves to action in order to stop events before they can go too far.





	1. Return

The shockwave of energy that went off in the Nevada desert didn’t go unnoticed.

But it was _where_ the shockwave originated that made some people worry.

“Did you just say the ‘Energon Badlands’?!” The man in the labcoat looked at his superior in shock. “We can’t send people in there, you know that! That’s neutral ground that even the Cybertronians label as off-limits!”

“I know, but that doesn’t mean we can’t investigate where the explosion came from,” the other replied. He sighed tiredly and ran a hand through his graying hair. “So far, all that’s being done is making sure that there wasn’t anyone in the area when the explosion went off. The plan after that is to wait and see if anything else happens.”

The younger of the two fidgeted worriedly. “And then?”

“And then we’ll have to see if the Cybertronians decide to do anything about it…or tell us if they’re experimenting with possible weapons on our planet’s soil.”

**Space Break**

The world was colored gunmetal gray, made of metal that seemed to have been something once, but was now slowly falling apart into piles of unidentifiable parts as the oxygen of the air ate away at the alien metal. It was quiet, but there was also something at work in the air here that drove away most who would come to this place.

A single figure stumbled over what used to be someone’s head, tennis shoes scuffing against the faded metal before leaping off and landing on the desert sand below.

A face with a guarded expression looked around slowly, taking in the landscape and the decaying metals.

“This place….”

Tears threatened to leak out of bright, almost glowing blue eyes, but they were blinked away.

“What happened here?”

The figure – a teenage girl in appearance – brushed her brown hair out of her eyes and looked around again, slowly turning. With each step, she saw another metal face, with optics cold and dark, and _knew_ that there was something horribly wrong with what she was seeing.

She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, pushing down the waterworks that attempted to flood her system and bring her to her knees. “I need to know what happened here. Then I can allow myself to grieve.” She opened her eyes again, a grimness settling on her face as her eyes sparked. “Time to find the Autobots.”


	2. Chapter 2

The _last_ thing Bumblebee had been expecting to hear was a blast of static from his communication system right in the middle of patrolling the Nevada desert.

He pulled off to the side of the road. “Who thinks it’s a good idea to scrapping call me in the middle of a scrapping—“

His dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree when he tuned in properly to the voice that was speaking.

_::--anyone on this signal, this is Flare-Up. Can anyone copy?::_

Bumblebee stiffened on his tires. “Holy scrap.”

 _::To anyone—::_ The voice stopped, then demanded more harshly, _::Who speaks?::_

“I-it’s Silent Stinger,” Bumblebee replied quickly, using an old code name that he hadn’t said in a long time. It felt weird to say it now. “Not so silent anymore, though.” The excitement quickly leaked into his voice. “Flare-Up, where’ve you _been?_ We haven’t heard from you in _years_ – not since Morgen and Katie disappeared! What have you been up to?”

There was a pause.

 _::It’s not something that should be spoken about over the comms, Silent Stinger::_ Flare-Up replied. _::Where are you right now?::_

“Outside Jasper,” Bumblebee replied instantly. “Where are you? You sound pretty—“

 _::I…appear to be in the middle of the remains of a Cybertronian battlefield. On Earth::_ There was another pause. _::I’ll come to you. Meet me on the outskirts of the town::_

The connection ended abruptly, leaving Bumblebee sitting on the side of the road, dumbfounded.

Then he swerved onto the road in an abrupt U-turn, cutting off an old, white pickup truck that should have fallen to pieces from rust in its undercarriage by now. Bumblebee hardly noticed, however, as the Autobot was racing back the way he had come in order to meet up with someone he hadn’t thought he’d see again in a _long_ time.

“I can’t believe she’s back,” Bumblebee muttered to himself, just barely staying within the speed limit as he shot past a sign that read “Jasper: 10 miles.” “She just up and disappeared without a word to anyone and now—“

A cold feeling settled in him. “She sounded…different. I hope she’s all right.”

He spotted the familiar figure five miles out from Jasper. It was a little hard to miss the figure who was flying low and fast towards the town, especially with how the hoverboard was catching the desert sun. Bumblebee honked loudly and turned off the road and towards the figure in the distance who was flying in a similar direction.

The figure turned sharply and flew towards Bumblebee, and the figure’s form became much more clear: a teenage, human girl, with brown hair and bright blue eyes that almost seem to have a glow hiding behind them. The orange jacket, red shirt, and jeans she was wearing rippled and waved in the wind caused by both the speed of the red and orange hoverboard and the desert landscape.

Bumblebee hit the breaks and swerved before stopping as the smaller figure flew up and stopped next to him.

“You haven’t changed a bit!” Bumblebee said in surprise as the girl landed.

The girl stepped off her hoverboard, not looking back as it folded up and disappeared into thin air behind her. “And you’ve gone back to your old paint job.” She raised an eyebrow at Bumblebee’s yellow-and-black appearance.

“I happen to like this design a little better,” Bumblebee admitted. Black and yellow had only been because of the Decepticons and needing camouflage. “I’m a bit attached to being yellow and black.” He chuckled nervously. “At least I’m not pink like Arcee would have been, right?”

A flicker of a smile appeared across the girl’s face, but then it was gone. “What happened here while I was gone? I saw—“

“Yeah.” Bumblebee sank down on his tires. “We, uh…we don’t really go to the Energon Badlands. Not after…well, I’m not sure what happened. Cybertronians started disappearing and then they just....” He trailed off.

The other’s expression darkened slightly. “There must be more to the story than just that.”

“Well, Ultra Magnus is keeping it under lock and key if he does know anything, and I haven’t seen him since he kicked me off Cybertron with my team.” Bumblebee popped the passenger’s side door open. “I can take you straight to the base we’ve got. It’s not much, and we have to keep things quiet, but it’s enough.”

The girl slipped inside without any word of protest, and Bumblebee closed the door and got back on the road.

“Who is still here?”

“We’ve got some old and new faces. We’ve picked up some pretty new tech too recently that lets us blend in a little better. You’ll see what I mean when we get there.”

His passenger folded her arms across her chest. “Considering that it has been…some time, since I was here, I would expect that some things would have changed. How are relations with the humans?”

“They…could be better.” If Bumblebee could drum his fingers right now, he would have. “They didn’t exactly appreciate it when a bunch of dead Cybertronians dropped into Nevada out of nowhere. And they don’t exactly like the fact that most of us down here were kicked off the planet and are now considered in exile.”

“Why?”

“…most of the Cybertronians back home weren’t part of the war. At least, most of it. And they wanted to put the blame on somebody, so…”

The girl’s eyes narrowed. “Sounds like when we put all the blame on the Germans for World War I. That’s a powder keg waiting to explode if things aren’t handled well.”

“Well, it’s Earth, and I kinda feel more at home here than I do there anyway.” Bumblebee took a turn in the road. “So, where’ve you been? Do you know where Morgen and Katie disappeared to?”

His passenger turned her gaze away from the wheel, looking instead at the passing landscape. “I’ll tell you when we get to the base. This isn’t something that should have to be said more than once.”

Something in her voice made Bumblebee slow a little. “…what happened? You don’t sound like you did.”

“A lot’s happened.” His passenger closed her eyes.

Bumblebee got the impression that she wasn’t planning on saying anything else. Considering how reserved she’d become, he wondered how much she was going to say at all when it came to what she had been up to.

**Time Break – Change in POV**

Maria came out of a light recharge when Bumblebee came to a stop. She opened her eyes and blinked twice when she saw metal walls and a human-sized corridor leading out of the large room they had arrived in.

Bumblebee popped the passenger door open, and she stepped out.

“Another underground base?” Maria looked around, eyes glowing a little in the dim artificial light from the few bulbs in the ceiling. “Where is it this time?”

Bumblebee’s sports car mode broke apart, parts shifting into other places as a towering mech took the car’s place. The doors settled onto his back as he explained, “We’re in the Rockies. I think that’s what you humans call it? We’re closer to the northern part of the country.”

Maria nodded, frowning slightly. The chamber they were in was completely empty. “Where is the rest of your team?”

“Over there, probably.” Bumblebee pointed towards the human-sized exit from the chamber. “Come on; I’ll reintroduce you.” He started walking towards the door, only to be surrounded by a bright flash.

Maria blinked, then blinked again. “Bumblebee?”

“Hmm?” The yellow-haired young man with the black stripe across the top of his head turned and looked at Maria in confusion. He blinked his glowing blue eyes a couple times before he smacked himself in the forehead. “Oh, yeah – you weren’t around when Joshua figured out Pretender Tech.” He motioned to his appearance – the yellow-and-black striped jacket, the yellow shirt underneath, jeans, and black shoes with yellow stripes. “Joshua figured out how to make us human-sized – and how to make us look human. Not everybody picked it up, but I like the idea of being able to blend in like this.”

“Joshua is capable of something like this?” Maria raised an eyebrow. “Interesting. He’s been busy since I saw him last.”

“He might be around here or back in the Midwest with the Predacons and Maximals; I haven’t been keeping track of what he’s up to.” Bumblebee motioned for Maria to follow him, grinning. “Come on; I want to see the looks on their faces.”

Maria followed after Bumblebee with a guarded expression, gaze fixed on the familiar Autobot symbol on his back.

So much had happened in her absence from this world. Could it really be the same world that she had left? It almost didn’t seem possible, but Bumblebee had recognized her, mentioned her parents and cousin by name.

She quietly moved her gaze away from Bumblebee’s back and towards the wall to her right as they started to reach the end of the tunnel. They were not going to take the news of what had happened to Morgen and Katie very well, especially if Bumblebee didn’t know what had happened to them.

“Hey, guys!”

Bumblebee’s call caused Maria’s gaze to move up again as they stepped out into the open.

“Bumblebee?” spoke up a confused, woman’s voice. “What are you doing back? I thought you said you were going to be gone for another day at least!”

Maria didn’t recognize the voice. She considered it likely that the speaker was a Cybertronian pretending to be human, and someone she hadn’t met yet.

“Something came up.” Bumblebee rubbed the back of his head and laughed. “Well, okay, more like some _one.”_ He stepped aside, and Maria stepped into the room.

The first thing she noticed was that the room looked like a comfortable living space and a command center had collided together and gotten so mixed it was hard to tell where the Cybertronian technology ended and the sofas and gaming centers for the humans began.

Heads turns and stared as Maria turned her attention from the room itself to the people in it.

A man with dark yellow hair rose to his feet and stared in shock with wide, blue eyes. “No way. Is that….” He started moving forward. “Maria? Sis? Is that you?”

It took Maria a moment to recognize him. “Collin. You…you’ve grown.”

“Wait.” A young woman with long blue hair that had a white stripe disappearing into the tight bun on her head turned and stared. _“That_ is Flare-Up? The World Jumper you’ve been talking about for the last five years we’ve been on this planet?”

So, the Cybertronians had been here for five years. But…Collin wasn’t a little kid anymore.

Collin looked back and nodded. “Yes, Strongarm. This is her.” He looked back at Maria and moved forward quickly before grabbing her in a hug. Maria blinked when she found that her face was pressed into her brother’s left shoulder.

He’d gotten taller. She hadn’t had the chance to.

“It’s good to see you again, sis.” Collin pulled back from the hug and smiled. “You haven’t changed a bit – I guess, since you’re a Reploid, you can’t age, huh?”

Maria nodded a little. “Yeah.”

“So, where’ve you been? I haven’t heard anything from you, Matt, or Liz since that summer you guys, Mom, and Dad disappeared!”

Maria looked away. “Speak for yourself; I come back and you’ve shot a food above me, Bumblebee and other Cybertronians are _exiled_ from their home world, and there is a graveyard in the middle of Nevada.” She looked back at her younger brother with a deep frown. “What happened.”

Collin’s smile faded. “A…a lot’s happened, sis. Joshua’s been the most in-touch with Cybertron after Wildfire, Shape-Change, and Sparkseer disappeared with who knows how many other Autobots and Decepticons—“

“I saw the remains,” Maria replied flatly, the piles of gunmetal gray forms flashing through the back of her mind. “Where is Joshua? He no doubt knows that I’m back by now.”

“We haven’t heard from that Reploid in weeks,” Strongarm said with a frown. “Said something about trying to keep up with some top secret experiments and he just vanished off the face of the Earth. In any event, you don’t need him to tell you what happened. Cybertron settled back into peace after everything was rebuilt, our people moved back in, and then Cybertronians started saying something was coming right before they disappeared. When their bodies were found, someone had to take the blame, so they exiled anyone who was close to them. The only reason that I’m here is because I was investigating the disappearances and I bet they thought I was getting too close to a solution.”

A police officer, not a soldier. Cybertron was definitely no longer at war.

“What of Prowl?” Maria asked.

“He’s one of the Cybertronians who disappeared,” Bumblebee replied. “We’ve, uh…we’ve lost a lot of people that you guys knew.” He raised his hands quickly. “Not everyone – don’t worry about that! – but…” He lowered his hands. “How about I show you around so that you can see who we’ve got here?”

Maria tilted her head slightly, then nodded.

“So, we’ve got Strongarm and Collin.” Bumblebee motioned to the two of them. “I’m kind of in command – over here, anyway; the Predacons and Maximals have their own leaders with Jolt and Joshua working as mediators between them. Anyway, here we’ve got Sideswipe –“

“Hey, kiddo.” A young man with spiky red hair raised a hand and waved from the couch.

“—Bulkhead—“

A slightly round, but still muscular man with dark green hair nodded from where he stood leaning against the back wall next to a computer covered in Cybertronian script.

“—Wheeljack—“

“It’s good to see Wildfire’s little legacy is still running around.” The man next to Bulkhead, wearing a mostly-white jacket with a green and red stripe on his left sleeve smirked and gave a mock salute.

“—First Aid—“

A woman with mostly-red hair with two white streaks in it looked up from where she was tinkering with something and nodded. “I’d like to make sure you’re still running well, Maria. It’s probably been some time since you were last looked at.”

“—and Coil,” Bumblebee finished, motioning to a young man who looked eerily identical to Collin. The only difference was that Coil’s eyes glowed and he looked a little skinnier than Collin was.

Maria nodded a little. “Are there any actual humans around besides my brother?”

“We get visitors sometimes. Mostly Jack, since he took Fowler’s place when he retired. Miko and Raf swing by too, but not as often.”

“I have a wife and kids who know about what’s going on as well,” Collin added. “The kids are still pretty small, though, so I only come up here to check on things every few days. You probably won’t see me or Coil very often….” He paused. “Unless you want to come home with me and meet your niece and nephew.”

“Don’t throw me into everything at once,” Maria replied. “I…I need time to adjust to this.” She looked away from the others and closed her eyes before taking in a deep breath. “The last thing I remember of this world is that summer. I didn’t expect to come back and find out that you had grown up in our absence.”

“Our?” Strongarm repeated.

“She’s talking about Mom, Dad, Matt, and Liz,” Collin explained. “They disappeared that summer too; no one’s seen them since then.”

Maria looked up sharply at that. “I was with Matthew; he should have returned here with me, but I haven’t seen him yet. Joshua probably sensed where he returned.”

“What about the others?” Bumblebee asked.

“Morgen and Katie can take care of themselves, wherever they are,” Sideswipe called with a lazy wave of one hand. “They’re tough fleshbags; they’ll be--“

“They died the day I disappeared,” Maria said flatly.

Silence fell over the base instantly. Maria felt and saw the stare of every Cybertronian in the room as her words sank in.

“…what?” Collin asked in soft confusion. He shook his head slowly. “You – you…” He stepped back slightly as a hard look crossed over his face. “Who killed them?”

There was a tenseness in the room at Collin’s words. Coil looked like he was ready to step forward and pull Collin back.

Maria lowered her eyes to the floor before looking up again. “Joshua was there. He saw what happened, even if he didn’t disappear with me. He should have told you – why didn’t he?”

“Because he locked himself in his lab after you disappeared and refused to come out for _years!”_

Maria frowned. “And now?”

“Now, he’s been keeping up the idea that you’ve all just disappeared _and_ his lab is now in the middle of a secret government base that only _looks_ like our hometown!” Collin started pacing around the room. “It’s annoying how many secrets he likes to keep, especially after he decided on a whim to revive Galvatron to give the Predacons a proper leader and knock Predaking down a peg or two. That could have been dangerous for everyone!”

Maria filed the information away for later as her eyes narrowed. “He should have told you about the Dark Arms and what they did. They disintegrated our parents and then took me to—“ She cut herself off and shook her head. “It doesn’t matter now. They won’t be coming after us again.”

Collin stopped pacing and looked at Maria strangely. “Dark Arms? I haven’t heard of—“

“It. Doesn’t. Matter.” Maria’s voice came out clipped and annoyed. “What matters now is figuring out what is going on _here_ and setting things straight before we have an even worse powder keg on our hands than we already do. If we don’t know what caused what I saw, then there is a chance that it could happen again, or someone is planning something far worse. I’m going to need to talk to Joshua. Do you have a Ground Bridge I can use to get to his location?”

Collin stared at Maria, then looked at Bumblebee, who looked just as confused and surprised as the human.

Bumblebee shrugged. “Uh…we don’t exactly have a working Ground Bridge here yet. And even if we did, the human government would probably try to come after us for it. The only reason we’re not being hunted down by them is because we agreed to keep to ourselves and stay out of anything they did. Same for the Maximals and Predacons.”

“Well, does anyone want to come with me on a cross-country roadtrip, then?” Maria looked over at Collin with a raised eyebrow.

Collin raised his hands. “I have a wife and kids not far from here; I’m not about to up and leave without giving them a few days’ warning at least.”

“I was planning on going.”

Maria looked over at First Aid as she left what she was tinkering.

“Joshua and Jolt both need to be looked over; at the rate they’ve been avoiding me, it’s starting to become dangerous if they keep it up. I don’t care if they’re both mechanics, they need a doctor’s touch.” First Aid looked pointedly at Maria. “I can look you over then, as well. Whatever it is you’ve done, it’s brought you back changed.”

“I won’t argue against that,” Maria replied. “An alternate version of Ratchet did assist in giving me some upgrades, but I went through a number of battles immediately afterwards.”

First Aid blinked a couple times. “You were…you were on an alternate version of our world?”

“Among others.” Maria looked over at Collin. “Matthew was on their world before the events that took place. I met up with him there.”

“You mean the DC one?” Collin frowned. “What happened over there? Joshua came back from that and said everything was fine?”

“Some….” Maria trailed off, then shook her head. “Some other things happened. Either Joshua wasn’t aware of what was coming or he became aware of it too late to warn the rest of us. In any event, it would be wise for me to let him know that I am back and that I want his help in finding out what exactly has happened here.” She motioned back to the door she and Bumblebee had stepped through moments ago. “Shall we go?”


	3. Chapter 3

The trip across the country took less time than an average roadtrip from the Rockies to the Midwest, if only because neither First Aid nor Maria really required all that much sleep. They stopped once or twice, pulling off the highway to recharge a little of First Aid’s energy while Maria watched her ambulance form just in case anyone got any ideas.

No one did, and it gave Maria time to peruse the news archives from the last twenty years in order to find what it was that she had missed.

The fact that she was 38 in her home dimension’s time wasn’t what surprised her. It was that technology had moved forward, that Earth was aware of Cybertronians and hadn’t gone to war against them (even if they had panicked about their presence for a few years), and that people were very acutely aware of the fact that there were people on Earth who now worked in the government who had the honor of claiming first contact with the alien race.

Jack, Raf, and Miko had all taken jobs that Maria was sure that Fowler had pushed in their general direction. Collin, according to First Aid, was doing something similar in California, but he never said what exactly it was he was up to. Something about evil beings and framed agents.

Maria made a mental note of that and decided to look into it when she returned to the base with First Aid.

“We’re coming up on the base.”

Maria opened her eyes, pulling out of the Internet and looking over at First Aid’s holoform in the front seat. The hologram of a human looked like the medic’s Pretender form, which made Maria think that the Pretender’s appearance came from the holoform, not the other way around.

Maria glanced around at the street they happened to be on – plain houses lined the streets, some looking better off than others. Some were also different from the ones Maria knew from her memories. “It’s good to see that most of this hasn’t changed.”

“Wait until you get inside,” First Aid replied. “Half of the houses here have been gutted and turned into labs. Anyone who lives here is part of the base that Joshua helps to run. They already know we’re here.”

Maria nodded slightly. “I’d expect nothing less. Is Joshua still where he was?”

“Yes, but…he’s expanded a little.”

Maria saw what First Aid meant when they reached the part of the street where Joshua’s house had once sat.

In it’s place was a two-story building that looked more like a lab and less like the house that had once stood there. The symbol over the door was of a rune of the planet Cybertron.

Maria stepped out of First Aid’s vehicle mode before she shifted suddenly to her Pretender form. “This is it?”

First Aid nodded. “You might want to stop shielding your Spark signal.”

Maria inclined her head slightly. “My apologies. Old habit.” She walked towards the front door.

“Old habit?” First Aid followed after Maria with an expression of surprise. “The only reason that it would be an old habit of any kind would be if you were on the run from…” She trailed off.

Maria paused right in front of the door and looked back. Her expression, which had remained serious and stoic throughout the drive from the base in the mountains to her old hometown, softened slightly – but only slightly. “You needn’t worry about what happened in the past. What’s done is done; there’s nothing any of us can do to change that. I’m fine.” She turned and started to push the doors open.

The doors flew open before Maria’s hand could touch the glass, revealing a frazzled-looking young man with electric blue hair sticking up in all directions and wide, glowing blue eyes. He blinked a couple times, then stared at Maria before looking at First Aid and back.

“You have got to be kidding me,” he said.

Maria tilted her head slightly. “Jolt.” She frowned and folded her arms across her chest. “Where’s Joshua?”

The blue-haired young man in front of her stared, jaw loose and mouth open. “Y-you – “ He shook his head. “Where have you been?! I expected you to appear on our doorstep nineteen years ago!”

“Time fluctuated while I was absent,” Maria replied flatly. “Where is Joshua?”

“He’s, uh, kind of in the middle of a meeting with Galloway,” Jolt replied hesitantly. “Has…Aid told you about him?”

Maria frowned slightly. Galloway…. “She mentioned him in passing. A man who thinks he knows everything about Cybertronians but clearly doesn’t and it has Fowler pulling out what remains of his hair. Is he here in person?”

“Y-yeah; this kinda _is_ a base, even if it doesn’t look like one.” Jolt ran a hand through his hair. “Primus, I didn’t think that I’d ever see you again. I don’t know if Joshua did, either.”

“I find that highly unlikely.” Maria started to move forward, but stopped after half a step when Jolt didn’t move. “Jolt. Let me pass.”

Jolt shook his head. “I don’t want Joshua to get into more trouble than he already has. A lot of what he’s done in the last twenty years has gotten him a lot more attention than either one of us would like. You showing up suddenly in the middle of a conference wouldn’t be a good idea, especially since Joshua is trying to tell Galloway that he’s not going to give him the technology to make Reploids.”

Maria’s eyes narrowed. “And how would this Galloway know about something like that? There have only been two Reploids in this dimension, and we haven’t made it a point to tell anyone outside of the Cybertronians and our families that we are no longer human. How did _this_ human manage to get that information?”

“Extensive background checks,” Jolt replied flatly. “There are some things they know about that they really shouldn’t.”

An annoyed grumble settled in Maria’s throat. “We should do something about that.”

“What do you want to do? At this point, they probably think you’re dead, so you’re probably not an American citizen anymore in the usual sense. I don’t know if—“

A man in a suit pushed past Jolt suddenly and stepped out of the building. He brushed past Maria and First Aid as he stomped down the street, muttering curses and threats under his breath.

Maria’s eyes narrowed as the man disappeared into one of the nearby houses. “That was him, wasn’t it?”

Jolt nodded tiredly. “That was him. Theodore Galloway.”

“Hm.” Maria folded her arms across her chest. “He looks like a fool in a suit that’s too big for him.”

Metal footsteps came from behind Jolt. “Jolt, I’m going to need to…Maria?”

Maria turned away from looking down the street and looked at the dark-haired boy standing in the doorway next to Jolt. Her bright blue eyes locked with his green ones, and she inclined her head slightly. “Joshua. You look the same as ever.”

Joshua blinked a couple times, then moved to stand in front of Maria, looking her over. “I hadn’t realized that you’d managed to come back.”

“Your visions didn’t tell you?” Maria frowned. “That doesn’t seem like them.”

“One thing led to another and I found that my abilities lean more towards the electrical side of things now rather than the psychic ones.” Joshua shrugged. “I suppose that comes from having Jolt as my influence, rather than someone like Garnet from _Steven Universe_.” He frowned. “What happened? I’m aware of what part of their initial plans were—“

“How.”

Joshua blinked at Maria’s flat tone. “They…they invaded a dimension that I was looking into – I was able to break into their system and see some of the things they were planning. I was going to warn you, but you had already left for Kalos.”

Maria put a hand to her chin as she looked away from the three standing near her. “That was when….” She dropped the hand and shook her head.

“I was able to warn your parents, at least, but Morgen acted like he knew it was coming. I can’t help but wonder if he had something that allowed him to see the future as well.” Joshua shrugged helplessly. “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to do more.”

“You did enough,” Maria replied tersely. “The past is in the past. Now we have something else to be concerned with: what exactly is going on in _this_ world. Something that the Cybertronians haven’t solved yet has taken the lives of some of those we knew and has caused Ultra Magnus to kick some of you off Cybertron as a result.” She looked between Jolt and First Aid as she spoke. “I’d like to find out why he decided to take that road of action, as well as what exactly caused their deaths in the first place. Whoever took their lives could take more if we don’t do something.”

“That is something that I’ve been working on investigating in secret.” Joshua motioned for them to follow him back into the building. “First Aid, I assume you’re here to do something about giving us a check up?”

“And Maria,” First Aid confirmed. “Wherever it was that she came from, she’s been dropping hints that it may as well have been a war zone. She could have been damaged in such a way that she needs major repairs and is hiding it in the same way she’s shielding her Spark signature.”

“Considering what I saw of their plans, I’m not entirely surprised that you came to that conclusion based on Maria’s present personality.” Joshua looked Maria up and down as they started into the building. “You definitely seem to be more serious than you were when we saw each other last.”

“That may be, but you don’t need to worry about me so much as we need to look into what’s happening in our dimension,” Maria replied.

Joshua’s lab had definitely expanded in the twenty years that Maria had been absent. Not only was he no longer in the cave where he had found a supply of Energon, but his technology had advanced in leaps and bounds from when Maria had seen him last. Joshua led them past multiple labs that were filled with different kinds of technology and experiments, drawing Maria’s eye in some cases out of surprise, but only for a second or two.

The lab that Joshua finally settled on looked more like a medical bay armed with a mechanic’s tools, with a high ceiling that opened to a sky light and a large slab of steel that looked like a metal table – to an average human, at least. Maria knew it to be something else entirely.

“Maria, you first.” First Aid patted a table that was clearly meant for someone more human-sized. “Drop the hologram and I’ll get started.”

“I’m not using the Light Refractor anymore,” Maria replied as she sat on the table. “I had an upgrade; my power is now separated into multiple levels. My present form is the first; my Reploid form is the third.” As she spoke, her clothes flashed brightly, only to be replaced by red, orange, and gray armor that covered her body from the neck down.

The table groaned suddenly under her weight as Joshua, Jolt, and First Aid looked at Maria in surprise.

“Who gave you this?” Joshua asked.

“An alternate version of Ratchet and a man that X and Zero trust to do their repairs,” Maria replied. “I had a need for them.”

First Aid pulled out a scanning device, and a green light flickered up and down Maria’s form for a couple seconds before disappearing. She pulled back and looked down at the screen on the device, blinked a couple seconds out of surprise, then frowned.

“You…you’re fully operational – and running _better_ than the last time that you were looked over by anyone.” First Aid looked at Maria with a surprised, confused expression. “How?”

“You would have to talk to Dr. Cain about that, but he resides in another dimension entirely.” Maria shrugged. “As the foremost leading expert on Reploids second only to Dr. Light, his knowledge proved useful to making sure that any damage I had was repaired.”

“Repairs?” First Aid frowned. “Lie back. Now. I want to see what parts were replaced.”

Maria lay back on the table without changing her expression other than slightly raising an eyebrow. She watched with a distant expression as First Aid popped her armor open with practiced ease, despite the fact that Maria had been absent for so long that most others would have forgotten.

First Aid paused when she saw Maria’s inner workings. “Joshua, what do you make of this?”

Joshua stepped forward and blinked. “It looks like Maria has been given upgrades with technology that I don’t have access to. I don’t recognize some of this, but it seems that it is working well with Maria’s core and isn’t causing her any issues that I can see.”

“I should hope not,” Maria replied. “Considering that I have put myself through the wringer in order to reverse some damage that has been caused.”

Joshua frowned. “Either you tell us what happened or stop alluding to it. This isn’t like you to keep beating around the bush, Maria.”

Maria’s armor closed tightly over her inner workings and she sat up. “A group of creatures that are similar to Shadow’s relatives attempted to merge multiple dimensions together – I doubt that I need to tell you who, considering you say you ran into them before.” She eyed Joshua with narrow eyes. “They nearly succeeded in causing a portion of the Multiverse to collapse. I had to step in and do something in order to not only reverse it, but to prevent as little of their influence from staying in those dimensions as possible. They were planning on making a new world for themselves after destroying their own, and I was not about to let them do so.”

Joshua tilted his head slightly at that, then nodded. “You prevented that portion of the Multiverse from collapsing?”

Maria nodded as her armor shifted back to normal clothes.

“How?” Jolt asked. “If they were merging dimensions together, then—“

“I caused a Continuum Shift.”

“That –“ Jolt stopped short. “A what?”

“You rebooted multiple universes.” Joshua’s eyes were narrow, now. “You…you caused multiple dimensions to be reset at once? How are you still functioning?”

Maria shrugged. “My energy pool has increased in size since you last saw me. And the Continuum Shift was set off by the Multiverse itself in an attempt to save itself; it simply chose me as its chosen instrument, instead of Matthew or Myra.”

Joshua stiffened. “Myra? You saw her?”

“Myra?” First Aid repeated in confusion. “That sounds familiar…didn’t you mention someone with that name during the war?”

“Yes…on Reverse Cybertron, we saved someone from being controlled by…our opponents,” Joshua said carefully. “She disappeared after that.”

“The version of her I saw was before that point in time, some time after she had met Liz and--“ Maria cut herself off, then looked away from them. “And my parents.”

First Aid gained a surprised expression, but it quickly turned to concern as Joshua’s brow furrowed.

“I believe that our timelines intersect at different places, because of how the Multiverse is,” Maria said. “And considering that, it’s likely I’ll see Myra again. When, I can’t say for certain.” Her expression shifted. “Enough of what-ifs concerning Myra. Tell me what’s happened here and if there is a chance that something that happened before could end up happening again.”

Joshua’s frown deepened.

“As far as we know, Wildfire and the others just sensed something, then went off to investigate and disappeared,” Jolt explained. “I asked her what she was up to before she left, and she said that ‘the past’s come back to haunt us.’ I’m not sure what she meant by that.”

“The past….” Maria’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“It can’t be the Decepticons,” First Aid said instantly. “If it was, we’d have started to see the signs already. Ultra Magnus and the council are made of former Autobots _and_ Decepticons, with Maximal and Predacon representatives every time they meet. If there’s been any unrest—“

“I…don’t think it’s that. The look on Starscream’s face right before they disappeared suggested he was scared of it, whatever it was. And he scoffed in my face when I asked if any Decepticons were trying to pull anything, so…” Jolt shrugged. “I don’t know what it could be.”

“It goes beyond Cybertronians, then.” Maria tilted her head slightly. “Is there any way for us to contact Cybertron from here?”

“Yes, why?”

“I want to consult with Alpha Trion, if that’s at all possible.”

Joshua and Jolt exchanged looks. Maria noticed and frowned.

“Alpha Trion…passed, five Cybertronian years ago,” Jolt said carefully. “We can’t exactly ask for his help on anything anymore.”

“…I see.” Maria reached behind her and pulled out a black hardcover book that was as thick as half the length of her hand and large enough to be the size of an average laptop. “If it is not from Cybertron, then it must be something that you faced as a people before. Something that some of you remember, but some don’t.”

“That’s a copy of the Covenant?” First Aid asked in surprise.

“A twenty-year-old copy, yes; I’m going to need an updated version if I’m going to keep up with everything that’s happened on Cybertron in my absence.” Maria opened the book and started paging through it, moving past the story that covered the creation of Cybertron and the 13 Primes, Unicron’s destruction, and the disappearance of the Predacons and Maximals from the annals of Cybertronian history.

She paused when she started reaching the later pages, during the time the Cybertronians were starting to come together. “Jolt, First Aid, were you there when Cybertronians started to create their society?”

Jolt looked over at First Aid as he shook his head. “No; I came out of the Well long after that.”

First Aid nodded. “I came later, as well; I heard stories, from some of the medics, but I never got any specific details.”

Maria slammed the book shut, and it disappeared from her hands in a bright flash. “I think I have a few ideas as to what happened – at least, the creatures that may have caused the disappearances and deaths. But I don’t know why or how they caused these things to happen.” She looked at Joshua. “Your future vision could have been helpful, if you had managed to keep it in the twenty years I was absent. So we will have to improvise.”

“What about your own visions?” Joshua responded.

Maria paused at the question, tilting her head slightly. “I haven’t had one since I returned. For now, I plan to just continue on as though not expecting one. If I receive one, plans will change accordingly.”

“What’s the first order of business, then?” Jolt asked.

“First, I am going to need to speak with someone on this base. I have no doubt that people consider me passed on, and I need to have that corrected.” Maria’s eyes flashed. “Let’s see what they think of Flare-Up now that she’s back and standing before them.”


	4. Chapter 4

When Joshua and Maria stepped into the building that had once been Maria’s home, Maria had been surprised to find that it looked almost the same as it had when she had left.

It was enough of a shock that it caused her to stop short a step into the house.

Joshua stopped a couple steps toward the kitchen and looked back at Maria as she stood on the doorstep, eyes wide and face pale. “I asked them to leave this part of the house alone, if you ever came back. I didn’t want you to come back to find that everything you knew had been lost.”

Maria hesitated at the door, looking for a moment like the wall her face had become was going to break down. Then she closed her eyes and breathed in deeply as her face settled again. “Thank you, Joshua. But as things are now, it …serves as more of a shock, than a comfort.” She closed the door behind her – carefully, as though it could end up falling off its hinges at any moment. “Where are the men that are supposed to be manning this base, then? I do not think that us walking into an empty house would bode very well for them, if they had left it absent for any reason.”

A woman’s head poked out from the kitchen, black hair with bright pink stripes sticking out all over her head like she’d just crawled out of bed. “There’s no way we’d abandon a post – especially not this one!”

Maria’s eyes widened sharply as the woman stepped out of the kitchen and grabbed her in a hug, once again burying Maria’s face in another shoulder.

“It’s good to see you again, firecracker.” The woman pulled back with a grin.

“Miko.” Maria nodded. “It’s…good to see you are well.”

“Hey, you’re acting a little different from what I remember!” Miko grabbed Maria’s shoulders. “You’re almost as much as stiff as Ultra Magnus! Where’ve you been that made you that, huh?”

“I’ve been…busy,” Maria replied carefully. “I had a few things to repair before I was able to return home.”

“And a race to get revenge on for killing your parents?” Joshua guessed.

Maria turned slowly and looked at him oddly. “That was never something that I considered. After my repairs, my only goal was reversing the damage they’d caused, nothing more.”

Miko whistled. “Wow. That bad, huh?”

“It could have become far worse than it was,” Maria replied. “So, you’re a part of this base?”

“Mostly to keep the big guys from squishing Joshie to figure out how he works.” Miko mussed up Joshua’s hair, getting an annoyed scowl from the other Reploid. “Y’know, since they want new weapons and all that. Can’t have enough guns, especially when there’s a chance you can make artificial people and leave the real ones at home to fight your wars – you’d think they’d have learned something after the Vehicon Skirmish that happened a while back.” Miko made a face. “Had to get them their own planet and everything; let me tell you, that was a hassle and a half.”

Maria raised an eyebrow at that, but decided against pressing for more details. “So, you can help me become…not dead in the eyes of the government?”

“Oh, you were never dead.” Miko waved Maria’s stare off. “We just convinced them to freeze all your data in limbo until you came back. Now all we gotta do is let them know you’re back, which is…not as easy as it could have been, since Fowler’s not around to get the usual done.” Miko shrugged. “Jack’ll get it done, though. Probably not as fast, though.”

“So long as they know I’m around again, that’s fine,” Maria replied evenly. “Who would you recommend I avoid until that’s settled?”

Miko hissed through her teeth. “ _Well,_ it’s Galloway we’re mostly worried about. That guy can’t tell a T-Cog from an audio receptor, and thought that the Predacons and Maximals were mindless, so….”

Maria gave Miko a deadpan expression. “How did he get to be your superior in any way in the first place?”

“Look, the Prez likes him and that’s all we can really say about it.” Miko grumbled something in Japanese under her breath. “We find ways to deal with him, but it’s not like we can just push him out of a plane with nothing but a parachute on his back.”

Maria snorted at the mental image, a smirk flickering across her face. “Sounds like you all agree he’s incompetent.”

“He’s worse than Ultra Magnus when we first met him!” Miko declared, throwing her arms in the air. “And it’s not like we can get his head on straight like we did for Maggie! This guy’s more stubborn than Starscream on a bad day!”

“Considering that he brushed past me after taking some time to speak with Joshua, I will have to take your word for it,” Maria replied dryly. “Where’s Jack, then?”

“He’s around.” Miko waved a hand. “I’ll get the info to him, don’t worry about that. We can get you your old room too, if you—“

“No.”

Miko blinked a couple times at Maria’s abrupt statement. She frowned. “No?”

“This place…holds too many memories of a past that’s long gone.” Maria shook her head. “I cannot be thinking of the past and what could have beens when there are other issues that need my attention. Has Earth had any contact at all with alien beings other than the Cybertronians recently?”

“Nope.” Miko shrugged. “It’s not really something that we’ve tried to do, and if anyone has, it’s probably being kept hidden from the rest of us.”

“Hm.” Maria’s eyes narrowed. “In that case, I need to get to Cybertron to talk to Ultra Magnus. There’s something going on here that makes me uneasy, and I have a few guesses as to what is causing these events.”

Miko hissed sympathetically. “We haven’t managed to get any Space Bridges working down here properly since Joshua’s was found and he had to shut it down.”

“You what?” Maria looked at Joshua.

“Jolt and I discussed it and agreed to dismantle the device in order to prevent the technology from being harnessed by the humans who were moving into the neighborhood and transforming it into a base,” Joshua explained. “The only way to go to Cybertron now is to use the Space Bridges on Cybertron, and the chances of that are slim, considering that they were last used to kick Bumblebee and his team off their home planet.”

“He better not be blocking off Cybertron because he’s concerned over what happened with the Cybertronians who disappeared.” Maria’s eyes narrowed. “Blocking themselves off from other worlds was a part of the Age of Rust right before the Autobot-Decepticon War, considering what I know of the Covenant.”

“He isn’t,” Miko replied quickly. “I’ve been able to stay in contact with Bulkhead, Jackie, and Maggie without a problem. It’s just that travel back and forth isn’t all that easy anymore. Mostly because of the government down here.”

Maria inclined her head slightly, then nodded. “I can see how that would be difficult. But if there is going to be anything that happens here, however, and we need to get the Cybertronians to assist us, I should hope that they will come to our aid.”

“What are you expecting to be getting here?” Joshua asked, frowning.

Maria pulled the Covenant out. “The beings who may have caused the disappearances of the Cybertronians are more than likely an enemy from their past. Only one race specifically would have enough anger and need for vengeance that they would want to come after Cybertronians of any kind; however, I’m not sure what they would be attempting to accomplish by going after only a certain number of Cybertronians, rather than the ones that were involved in the war that was waged against them.”

“You think they’d hold a grudge for that long?” Miko frowned.

“Cybertronians are long-lived; so are their opponents,” Maria replied without batting an eye. “Especially the beings that I suspect are attempting to cause as much damage as possible. Wildfire is older than she acted; I wouldn’t be surprised if she knew something about these beings and decided to investigate, only to be caught off-guard herself when her assumption proved to be true.”

“You got a point there.”

“But who is it that you think is going after them?” Joshua tilted his head slightly.

“I believe that it’s—“

They were suddenly cut off by a loud alarm echoing up and down the street.

Miko stiffened. “Big problem!” She bolted for the open door; Maria followed after her instantly, Joshua on her heels.

“What sort of problem?” Maria called as they broke out the front door and onto the street.

“We’ve been having raids to our local warehouses the last few weeks – people taking weapons and tech that Josh’s made and can’t have released to the public yet.” Miko started looking around. “It sounds like whoever it is just got bolder and decided to—“

A large, yellow, mechanical being suddenly stepped out of the trees behind Joshua’s lab, face slack with no emotion.

Maria’s gaze sharpened, and she bolted down the street towards the giant figure. She jumped as her appearance shifted from clothes to armor, and a square of metal disconnected from her back before unfolding into a red and orange hoverboard, which she landed on instead of hitting the ground.

“Maria!” Joshua called after his fellow Reploid. “What are you—“

“He’s been MindTech’d!” Maria barked back, not taking her gaze off the mechanical being. “Stay back!” Her hands became covered in orange flames that sparked with white embers as she got closer to her target. “Sunstreaker was one of the figures I saw in the Energon Badlands – that must have been a decoy!”

The mechanical being – Sunstreaker – turned his head as Maria approached, and she caught sight of something on the back of his neck that made her eyes narrow as she gritted her teeth out of annoyance and anger. She drew her arms back, then threw them forward as Sunstreaker started to raised the weapon he was holding in one hand.

The fire on Maria’s hands stretched forward and grabbed Sunstreaker’s neck before tightening. He froze, stiffening up as his blue-white optics flickered before becoming flooded with bright blue light as Maria shot around to Sunstreaker’s back.

She spotted the device as the flames started to fade, then frowned.

“That’s…I know what you are.” Maria raised her right arm as it shifted into a cannon, hand disappearing from sight. “Charged Stun Shot!”

The resulting blast of yellow energy hit the device on the back of Sunstreaker’s neck – a purple-and-black bug with glowing green runes carved into its metal shell.

_Pop!_

Sunstreaker stumbled forward as the bug popped off, sparking and legs flailing as they lost their grip on the cables in Sunstreaker’s neck. It fell to the ground behind one of the houses as Sunstreaker managed to regain his balance, rubbing the back of his neck and making sounds that were reminiscent of a car engine having trouble starting.

Joshua frowned. “Where did you learn—“

Maria pointed at the bug that had fallen to the ground. “Get that Cerebro Shell and tear it to pieces before I destroy it and prevent us from tracking it to the source,” she said flatly.

Joshua stared at Maria with a blank expression, then turned and ran over to where the device was lying on its back. It was almost as long as he was tall, and the six prong-like legs it had were still twitching from the shock Maria had given it.

Joshua made a motion with one hand, zapping it again directly in its inner workings and causing it to stop moving.

Sunstreaker looked around as men and women armed to the teeth came streaming out onto the street. “…what the – where did – what’s going on here?”

“You just came out of being mind controlled,” Maria replied, moving around in front of him and folding her arms across her chest.

Sunstreaker blinked, and his optics focused. “…Maria? Where in the Pit have you been?!”

“Busy,” Maria said flatly. “As have the monsters that have gotten into your heads, apparently. Cybertron thinks you’re dead.”

Sunstreaker stared blankly for a moment. Then his eyes widened as Maria’s words sank in. “Where’s Sideswipe.”

“In the Rockies, hiding with—“

Sunstreaker instantly transformed into a sleek, alien version of a sports car, and sped off down the street, ignoring the humans who stood in the road, weapons at the ready.

Miko motioned with one hand as Sunstreaker disappeared down the street, causing the men and women to lower their weapons. “Maria? What did you just do?”

“I recognized his expression from an alternate version of himself who was trapped in a mind control state,” Maria replied as she lowered herself to street level. “It was logical that I do something about the device that was attached to him or, in the absence of that, momentarily stun him in order to prevent him from doing further harm or follow the orders of whatever monster was giving him direction.”

Miko blinked, then frowned. “You sound like a scientist.”

“She sounds like a soldier,” Joshua corrected.

Maria frowned. “I didn’t have _time_ to be a teenager. And I don’t now. Tear that thing apart and find its origins and what Sunstreaker was ordered to do, if you can. I need some time to think – maybe find a way to discover what is going to happen next.” She started down the street towards the building that used to be her home.

“That’s the World Jumper, huh?” muttered one of the soldiers as she moved past. “Looks a bit younger than I thought she’d be.”

“I went from human to Reploid at age 16, what age do you _expect_ me to look, 25?” Maria snapped in reply. “My appearance doesn’t matter as much as the power I hold. Remember that.”

The armed figures lining the street shuffled at her words, and Maria stepped into her house without another word.


	5. Chapter 5

Maria sat down in the living room on the couch, pouring over the Covenant as Miko peered in on her from the hallway.

“You haven’t said anything about what these things are yet,” Miko said.

Maria paused in the middle of turning a page and looked up. She blinked. “I should think that it is obvious. There is only one race that harbors a grudge against the Cybertronians in this manner, but Alpha Trion doesn’t have much on them here.” She closed the Covenant and handed it over to Miko. “There is a section in there before the Golden Age that details their war against them. I’ve read it enough times to know it and Orion Pax’s – Optimus Prime’s – movements by heart.”

Miko opened the book and flipped through the pages. She paused in front of a page and frowned. “You really think this is them? It sounds like they got thoroughly beaten to a pulp.”

“I’m certain.” Maria pushed herself off the couch. “Those beings want to prove they can conquer Cybertron now, that it’s been weakened by war and need leaders. Their definition of leaders. The problem is I am neither sure how nor when they are going to make more of their moves. Taking Sunstreaker will catch them by surprise.”

“So, you’re expecting another one to show up?” Miko guessed.

“Exactly. But I don’t know where or when just yet. I would guess somewhere near our or Collin’s location. Or Sunstreaker’s, if they want to get him back.” Maria held out a hand, and Miko gave back the Covenant.

“Before you get to that, we gotta get you back outta limbo,” Miko said with a smirk. “What happened with Sunstreaker definitely got you some attention, so it might go faster than if Jack said something to the big wigs up top.”

“I hope so.” Maria frowned. “I assume they’re going to want to speak to me in person.”

“Galloway, probably, yeah. He’s probably still on the base. Since Joshie’s locked himself away in his lab to pick that big beetle apart, Jolt’s gonna be there with ya when you meet him. Which’ll probably be—“

The front door of the house was promptly thrown open with enough force to shake the house, and the same man in a suit who had brushed past Maria came stomping into the house, followed shortly by Jolt, who looked a little nervous.

“Where is that stu—“

“Maria’s right here, Director Galloway.” Miko pointed at Maria as she looked at him with an unimpressed expression.

Galloway spluttered as he stopped mid-word and stared at Maria. “This can’t be right.”

Maria’s clothes shifted to armor. “Do not judge me by my appearance. I am Maria Carlsdale, the World Jumper Cybetronians call Flare-Up. “

Galloway frowned. “What are you doing here alive?”

“I was simply away helping another dimension, and now I have returned to my home,” Maria replied. “Did you think that I was going to leave this place and never come back when I still had family here?”

Galloway opened his mouth to say something, then closed his mouth and frowned. He didn’t look particularly pleased. “So you’ve come back. Does that mean you’re going to be swearing loyalty to—“

“World Jumpers come and go to where they are needed; don’t expect me to stay put now.” Maria frowned. “I am still an American citizen regardless of my connections to Cybertron and other dimensions. Right now, there are a few things that are connected to Cybertron and Earth that I need to assist in stopping, and I believe that it is going to start very soon because of Sunstreaker’s appearance.”

“What makes you think that?” Galloway responded.

“He had a mind control device strapped to the back of his neck,” Maria replied flatly. “He was not doing anything of his own free will. And I doubt that Earth is prepared for what is happening with the Cybertronians.”

“Mind control…?” Galloway blinked in confusion.

“Maria’s kinda got a thing against that,” Miko said. “So, I’m gonna let her wander off and do what she can in order to figure out what the Pit’s going on. She’s older than me, anyway.”

“By how much?” Galloway frowned at Maria. “She doesn’t look like she can be any older than—“

“I was 18 when I disappeared, and as twenty years have passed, I’m 38,” Maria cut him off. “I don’t age because I’m a Reploid like Joshua is. He is as old as I am.”

Galloway blinked blankly at Maria’s words. “If you’re a Reploid, then—“

“I’m not letting you look at my inner workings. I have other things that I have to focus on, and the technology I have isn’t one that is to be spread around lightly. Especially considering that the dimension this technology heralds from fell into multiple civil wars as a result of misusing what they had.” Maria folded her arms across her chest. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to go speak with the allies I know from two decades ago on my suspicions, see what Joshua has managed to find, and move on from there. I don’t intend to leave my younger brother out of things either, and I would like to rejoin his base in the Rockies in order to bring him up to speed.” Maria started out of the house.

Galloway grabbed her right shoulder. “You will not leave this place without my say-so, _World Jumper.”_ His voice had a sneering tone to it.

Maria rolled her shoulder back and out of Galloway’s grip. “Do I need to bring up the fact that I know certain members of the Cybertronian government personally? If Ultra Magnus or anyone in the present council I know heard about what’s going on and might be willing to send someone down to step in…how would that affect your relations with them?”

Name-dropping Ultra Magnus gave Galloway pause. Enough pause to allow Maria to slip out of the house without another word.

Jolt’s vehicle mode was sitting outside on the street next to First Aid. Joshua was standing next to Jolt, alongside two men in uniform – a Caucasian with a buzzcut, and an African American.

“William Lennox and Robert Epps.” Joshua motioned between the two of them. “My cousin, Maria.”

“The kid definitely has a presence.” Lennox nodded in greeting.

Maria nodded in return. “What’d you find in the Cerebro Shell?”

“Not much, other than the fact that the beings that had Sunstreaker under their control wanted Jolt.” Joshua’s brow furrowed. “I didn’t recognize the electronic signature that was left behind, either. It looked like five faces pressed over on top of each other.”

“I’ll fill you in on the way back to the Rockies,” Maria replied. “There’s a lot going on that we have to be concerned about now.”

“We’re going with you.” Epps frowned at Maria. “There’s no way that I’m gonna step back and let you take over when I don’t know what it is that’s going on.”

Maria inclined her head slightly at the statement and raised an eyebrow. After a moment, she nodded. “All right. Let’s go.”

Jolt’s back doors popped open as Joshua slipped into the front passenger seat. Maria, Epps, and Lennox squeezed themselves into the back seat, and the door closed behind them before Jolt and First Aid started down the street and out towards the west.

“Communications open with First Aid?” Maria asked as they left the familiar neighborhood behind.

The stereo crackled as a hologram of Jolt’s Pretender form appeared in the driver’s seat. _::I can hear you loud and clear, Maria::_

“Good.” Maria leaned against the left door in order to give Lennox and Epps a little more room. “First Aid, Jolt – do either one of you remember the time before the Golden Age?”

“You mean what the Covenant calls the Golden Age?” Jolt tilted his head slightly. “No; I came out of the Well after that.”

 _::Same::_ First Aid agreed.

“All right. Then this will make things a little less believable for you, but I believe that Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, and Wheeljack will know who it is I’m talking about.” Maria paused. “I believe the Quintessans are attempting to make another move on Cybertron in order to bring the entire planet under their control again.”

Joshua turned in his seat to stare back at Maria.

“Quintessans?” Lennox repeated with a frown. “What kinda monsters are those?”

“As far as the Covenant tells, they are beings made in Quintus Prime’s image who somehow came to the conclusion that they were the creators of the Cybertronians,” Maria replied evenly. “The author of the Covenant spoke of them with great disdain and covered what Orion Pax and other Cybertronians did as part of a rebel group against them. Ratchet was recorded as being one of the Cybertronians assisting him, as well as Jazz.”

 _::Both of them are missing::_ First Aid said grimly.

“The Quintessans might have been aware of them and decided to get to them as revenge or in order to have them as pawns,” Maria continued. “They used a Cerebro Shell on Sunstreaker; they had to have gotten that technology from somewhere on Cybertron.”

“How do you know about that?” Epps responded.

“Wildfire got hit with one twenty years ago when she was investigating something on Cybertron; I slipped in with a Mini-Con’s help in order to rescue her and snap her back into focus. There was a Decepticon who was running the operation – Mindwipe. He made use of the Cerebro Shells to alter and control her thought processes.”

“I remember that,” Joshua said. “Jolt and I were on Cybertron at the time doing research – that was before you stepped off-world for the second time that summer.”

“To Atlantis, yes.”

Joshua blinked. “Atlantis? You’d mentioned Marvel before your left.”

“I had a change of plans,” Maria replied crisply. “I should think I told you that, when I came home and found Stanford Pines in your—“

“Who?” Lennox asked.

“No one important,” Joshua replied. “Not important to what’s happening now. Pines is from another dimension; he doesn’t have anything to do with the Quintessans and what they have planned. He had other problems to worry about.”

“Exactly.” Maria nodded.

“Do we know what the Quintessans look like?” Epps asked.

Maria frowned. “The Covenant has some details – multiple faces—“

“Which explains the five faces engraved over each other as a signature,” Jolt noted.”

Maria nodded. “And they were made in Quintus Prime’s image. However, as he is one of the original 13 Primes, the Covenant doesn’t have very many details on their appearance other than the faces and the fact that they have metal tentacles.”

“So, we’re looking at what, metal octopus? Metal jellyfish?”

Maria shrugged at Lennox’s question. “We could be. I haven’t seen one in person. It’s likely that Sunstreaker has, but we have to find him before the Quintessans send another mind controlled Cybertronian to bring him back. First Aid, do you have a fix on where he is? He can’t be too far ahead.”

 _::He’s definitely heading in the direction of the Rocky Mountains::_ First Aid replied. _::We could reach him quickly, but we will have to make a few stops because of Lennox and Epps::_

“We can split up,” Maria replied. “Either you or Jolt can go ahead with me and Joshua or one of us, and the other can follow with Lennox and Epps.”

“Like that’s going to happen,” Epps shot back with a snort. “If these things are out looking for Cybertronians, they could find you, too.”

“First Aid, would it be safe to contact Bumblebee and the base and alert them that Sunstreaker is back?” Joshua asked.

_::I should think so – we’re still using the system that you set up, so we should be fine….Bumblebee? Bumblebee! Sunstreaker is alive and heading towards Sideswipe’s location!::_

There was a blast of static, followed by an excited yell and Bumblebee yelping. _::You can’t be serious! Where – how – his body is—::_

Maria slapped a hand over her left ear. “The one in the Energon Badlands is most likely a copy meant to act as a decoy to keep anyone from looking for him. Send someone with Sideswipe – the creatures who were controlling him before are more than likely looking for a way to get him back.”

_::Got it – Strongarm, you’re with me! We’ll meet you guys back at base when we’ve found Sunstreaker::_

“Understood.” Maria lowered her left hand from her ear, then raised an eyebrow at Lennox and Epps as they stared at her. “What. I have access to internal communications systems just like Joshua and the Cybertronians do.”

“You didn’t say anything about the Quints,” Lennox pointed out.

“I don’t want to discuss information like that over the system until we can meet with them in person,” Maria replied evenly. “Something like that shouldn’t be spread around too much. Hopefully, one of the Cybertronians here on Earth will know something about them and be able to offer some insight in case we run into them.” She leaned back in her seat and folded her arms across her chest. “We’re going to be on the road for a few days; if you need anything, tell Jolt.” And with that, she closed her eyes and slipped into recharge.

The two men exchanged looks, then looked at Joshua.

“She doesn’t sound human,” Epps said.

“Wherever she was, she wasn’t able to be,” Joshua replied. “The beings she was fighting against must have made it difficult for her to be able to have a breather to relax. Whatever the Dark Arms did, they changed Maria even before she set off the Continuum Shift in the other dimension. I hope that, once we get this issue solved, she’ll be able to relax enough to return to normal.”

He paused. “At least, as normal as she can be now. It’s been twenty years since she was here last, and I haven’t seen Matthew or Liz since that summer. Collin is the only family she has left here, if you don’t count the Cybertronians and myself. I don’t know if I’ll ever see her as I remember her again.”

Jolt sighed. “Honestly, she sounds a lot like how Wildfire was before she met Maria. It’s going to take a long time for her to settle out of that.”

Lennox and Epps exchanged looks.

“Well, so long as she’s focused, we’ll just have to deal with it,” Lennox said finally.

Joshua nodded grimly in agreement.


	6. Chapter 6

It was nearly sunset on the first day, out in the middle of Montana, when Maria woke up abruptly and yelled, “Pull over now!”

Jolt swerved as Joshua’s head shot up from where he had been napping.

“What are you—“

“You heard me, pull over!” Maria barked. She pointed over Lennox and Epps towards the flat plains they were driving through. There was a cloud of dust in the distance that didn’t look like it was supposed to be there. “ _Now!”_

Jolt quickly moved to the side of the road; First Aid, who was ahead of them, pulled over a half mile or so ahead of them as Maria burst out her side of the car and bolted towards the cloud of dust in the distance.

Lennox and Epps almost scrambled over each other in an attempt to get out of the back seat as Joshua stepped out of the car.

“What’s going on?” Lennox demanded as Maria leapt onto her hoverboard and sped ahead towards the cloud of dust.

Joshua’s eyes flashed a brighter blue. “There’s a couple Spark signatures over there – we have Cybertronians fighting in plain sight!” He started running after Maria. “Jolt, First Aid – we’re probably going to need someone to give them medical attention!”

“On it!” Jolt’s form shifted to his gigantic, mechanical form seconds before First Aid did the same. He scooped Joshua up before running towards the dust cloud, almost leaving Lennox and Epps in the dust were it not for the fact that First Aid picked up the two men.

Maria reached the dust cloud before the others did, fire coating her arms as she prepared to fire off an attack at any moment. A stray blast of purple fire shot out from the cloud of dust, missing Maria by mere feet as it flew harmlessly above her head and off into the sky.

Maria’s eyes narrowed sharply, and she raised her arms above her head. The fire on her arms extended up and back, turning into long, flame whips that she threw in front of her, bending her body almost all the way over in the process.

The dust cloud parted, and the flames smacked into two giant figures locked arm-in-arm. One – a large, silver mechanical being – had a large cannon strapped to his arm, while the other was smaller, mostly white, and with a single red and blue stripe running down his front.

The silver mech glanced at Maria, then did a double-take as red optics with a purple tinge to them widened sharply.

Maria’s gaze, however, was zoned in on the beetle-like shell that was on the back of the other mech. She pulled out her Buster. “Hold him still!”

The silver mech’s grip tightened on the mostly-white mech, who lashed out with his feet in an attempt to kick his opponent in the knees or the stomach. The actions only caused the silver one to wince, but his grip didn’t waver.

Maria flew around behind the other as Jolt and First Aid came over and leveled her Buster on the beetle-like device on the other’s back.

The Charged Stun Shot that followed sent sparks flying up and down the other’s form as the Cerebro Shell was sent flying back a short distance, legs in the air and twitching as the device tried to turn over.

“Joshua!” Maria barked.

“On it!” Joshua leapt off Jolt’s hand, sparking electricity from his limbs as the lime green jacket, cobalt shirt, and jeans shifted suddenly into red and green armor. Blasts of air came from the boots covering his feet as he flew down towards where the Cerebro Shell was still twitching.

The resounding _zap_ that came from Joshua’s impact with the mind control device was enough to cause it to start smoking as it fell limp.

The mostly white mech groaned and shook his head, the blue visor over his eyes flickering before settling on a bright blue. “Ugh. What jus’ happened? It feels like someone tried ta ram a spike straight through my skull.”

The silver mech’s optics narrowed slightly. “You were trying to take my head moments ago – a foolish decision on your part.”

The other mech looked up sharply; his jaw dropped. “Megatron!” He pulled himself back and away, Megatron letting him go without protest. “What the – but – but you – we thought you were dead, man! Kaput! Swimmin’ with the fishes!”

“Well, I am clearly _not_ , Jazz,” Megatron muttered. “And neither are you or Flare-Up.”

“Flare-Up?” Jazz turned his head as Maria moved between them, arms folded across her chest. “Holy – where have ya been, kid? Wildfire went nuts tryin’ ta get inta contact with ya when ya disappeared!”

“I’ve been busy,” Maria replied shortly. “And, apparently, so have the beings that have been controlling you.” She glanced over at the Cerebro Shell as Joshua pulled a laptop out of nowhere and hooked it up to the device.

Jazz followed her gaze and sucked in a breath. “Oh, you have got ta be kiddin’ me.” He looked back at Maria. “Got any idea what caused it?”

“A pretty good one, yes.” Maria nodded. “The same beings that tried to say they were your creators are after you for revenge, more than likely.”

Jazz and Megatron stared for a couple seconds before they groaned in unison, Megatron’s coming out more as an annoyed growl.

“Them again?” Megatron ran a clawed hand down his face. “I thought they learned their lesson after what happened on Aquatron!”

“…that explains the stupid tentacle things I’ve got in my recent hazy memory.” Jazz rubbed the side of his helm. “Any idea how we’re gonna fight back this time? I’m assumin’ others got taken.”

“Wildfire among their number, yes.” Maria nodded as Jazz turned his head sharply in alarm.

First Aid stepped forward, Lennox and Epps still in her hands. “Jazz, are you severely damaged anywhere?”

Jazz shook his head. “I’m fine, I’m fine – just a few scratches.”

“Only because you were too fast for me to hit you properly,” Megatron muttered. “Then again, you didn’t get me either.” He looked over at First Aid and Jolt and blinked a couple times. “What are you two doing here on Earth?”

“Exile for looking for Jazz and the others,” First Aid replied.

“Joshua and I are helping to keep Maximal-Predacon-human relations at least somewhat stable,” Jolt added. “It’s been…somewhat difficult, though, considering how the humans have been reacting to us. The human government’s been demanding more of our technology from us. We’re lucky that Joshua hasn’t given them anything yet, but it’s only a matter of time.”

“I’ve got confirmation that the Quintessans are behind this,” Joshua called from by the Cerebro Shell. “They sent Jazz to get Sunstreaker back, but he’s probably reached the Rockies and Sideswipe by now.” He disconnected his laptop from the mind control device and hid it away in his subspace. “You keep going and meet up with Bumblebee and the others; Jolt and I should go back to the base and make sure that no one’s attempted to break into our lab in our absence. Epps, Lennox, will you return with me or continue on with Maria?”

The humans on First Aid’s hands exchanged looks.

“Well, we’re supposed to be keeping an eye on the kid who just came back,” Epps said. “Galloway’s orders.”

“Does he really expect a pair of humans to be able to keep up with me?” Maria asked blandly.

“Kid, he just asked us to keep an eye on you, he didn’t say anything about actually being in the line of duty with you,” Epps replied.

“Not that that won’t mean we’re not willing to help,” Lennox added. “If you need anything from our end, we’d be able to get back to Nakadai and the others at the base.”

Maria tilted her head slightly, considering that, then nodded. “Very well then.”

“Did you just say that they were aiming to get Sunstreaker back?” Megatron asked.

Jazz rubbed his helm again. “I think I remember hearin’ somethin’ about that, but it’s not very clear fer some reason.”

“After-effect of the mind control,” Maria replied. “It’ll become starkly clear or fade out completely by the end of the day. And yes, Megatron – we freed Sunstreaker earlier today; he’s rushing towards a base in the Rocky Mountains to meet up with Sideswipe.”

“His twin’s down here?” Jazz asked in surprise. “Why?”

“Ultra Magnus kicked some of us off Cybertron because we were looking for you,” First Aid replied sternly. “He was worried that we would stir up a panic looking into something that caused you all to disappear and end up in a dead pile in the middle of Nevada – which, by the way, we thought you were a part of.” She poked Jazz in the chest meaningfully. “That just confirms Maria’s thought that they’re nothing but decoys meant to throw us off.”

Jazz’s head moved between First Aid and Maria as the World Jumper nodded. “Oh…kay, that doesn’t sound good. So what are we gonna do about it?”

“Regroup, fill the others in on what’s going on, and see if we can contact Cybertron and tell Ultra Magnus what the scrap is going on so we can prepare for any possible attack the Quintessans might throw at us,” Maria replied.

Jazz stared at Maria. “Kid, you just _sounded_ like Ultra Magnus. What’s up with that, did you go through boringification or somethin’?” His mouth quirked up into a smirk, half-expecting to get a reaction out of Maria.

Maria looked back at Jazz with a disapproving expression, then sighed loudly and shook her head, lowering her gaze. “What I went through was far worse than that. The monsters I fought against were tearing apart the very fabric of reality, and….” She closed her eyes, then frowned and shook her head before looking at Jazz. “They’ve been stopped by a Continuum Shift; they won’t be trying that again. Let’s focus on the Quintessans for now.”

Jazz hesitated, and Megatron took the opportunity to speak up.

“If we are going to the Rockies, it would be best if we moved now, before we attracted more attention to ourselves,” Megatron said. “Joshua, Jolt; return to your laboratory and keep us posted on what is happening with the humans.”

“Of course,” the two replied at once. Jolt shifted down to his sports car mode, and Joshua climbed in before they took off the way they had come.

“Maria, I would appreciate it if you rode with me,” Megatron said. “First Aid, I assume you know where we’re going?”

“Of course,” First Aid replied.

“Good. One of the men can ride with you, and the other with Jazz. Choose quickly; we don’t have all day.” Megatron eyed the setting sun pointedly.

Lennox and Epps exchanged looks.

**Time Break**

Maria sat back in the passenger’s seat of Megatron’s chosen alt mode. “I didn’t think that you would take a ground mode like this.”

“I thought it fitting.” Megatron’s steering wheel lit up with every word he spoke as First Aid and Jazz moved onto the road with Lennox and Epps respectively. He followed after them a moment later, the body of his vehicle mode handling the off-road to on-road transfer far better than a normal semi truck. “Especially considering that, this way, we will not gain more attention than we already have.”

“Hm.” Maria turned her attention from the dash to the passing flat scenery. She supposed that First Aid might start turning them south soon. “Why did you want me with you.”

“I wanted to speak with you.”

Maria’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Concerning what?”

“Concerning the fact that you have come back from a war and have clearly not recovered from it.”

Maria sighed with annoyance and leaned back in her seat as the seatbelt tightened a little. “We don’t have time for this, Megatron. The Quintessans—“

“Are not presently attacking us, and we are going to meet up with the Cybertronians who are in exile as a result of their actions,” Megatron replied evenly. “Tell me. What is it that happened while you were gone these last twenty Earth years?”

Maria frowned up at the ceiling of the truck cab with an expression of disapproval. She folded her arms across her chest and sighed through her nose. “A group of aliens called the Dark Arms destroyed their own dimension trying to obtain more power for themselves. They were barely able to leave their own dimension before it collapsed, leaving so many people behind. A small group of others was able to leave and survive in a different way, but they’ve been scattered across the Multiverse as far as I’m aware.”

Megatron said nothing. It seemed he didn’t intend to ask questions, so Maria kept going.

“The Dark Arms decided to make a new dimension and started merging other worlds together,” Maria continued. “But the merging was unstable – they needed another force in order to help keep their new dimension of collided worlds in balance. They ended up finding the solution to their problem in…me. A World Jumper.” Maria closed her eyes. “So they threw together a plan in order to capture me while bringing one of the worlds that I’ve been to into the mess they were creating. They ended up catching me here, on the street in front of my home, where they killed my parents in the same move.” She paused. “If anything has given me a hatred for mind control, it’s the Dark Arms and their MindTech.”

Maria felt Megatron stiffen a little at her words, but she kept going.

“They merged a number of larger dimensions together, but even with me there it wasn’t permanent. Matthew put together a rebel group and managed to rescue me from their control in such a way that I’m now permanently immune to their programs. We just barely managed to rescue the main heroes of the other worlds before we went after the Dark Arms themselves. I set off a Continuum Shift to undo the damage they’d done to the Multiverse before that portion collapsed in on itself, and I came back here.” Maria shrugged. “I’m sure that Matthew’s returned as well and simply hasn’t had a chance to contact us yet. Give him time; he’ll make an appearance here soon enough.”

“He was with you?” Megatron sounded curious. “I was under the impression he was elsewhere.”

“One of the dimensions he was in got involved in the World Collision,” Maria replied without missing a beat. “Apparently, he’d sensed that something was going to happen and elected to stay there rather than return home with Joshua. He can handle himself, and I am confident he will find a way to get into contact with us.”

Megatron gave a short hum in response, then fell silent.

Maria stayed with her eyes closed for a moment, then opened her eyes again. “Aren’t you going to say something?”

“What is there to say?” Megatron replied. “You have seen war just as I have, and I am not about to tell you what to do now. It is clear that you have seen much for someone your size and age, however, and some might think it would be wise if you spoke of it to others.”

“What’s done is done; they don’t have to worry about the Dark Arms coming after this dimension,” Maria said sternly.

“I understand that. But your family will still have some concern over you.” Megatron paused. “Think it over. I won’t press you into speaking about something that you feel should not be spoken about just yet.”

Maria considered Megatron’s words, then nodded. “I can see what you are saying, but I still don’t think that I should have to say anything.”

“We shall see. In the meantime – who else is here on Earth?”


	7. Chapter 7

Their arrival on base was greeted by dropped jaws and an expression of shock on Bumblebee’s and Collin’s faces.

Maria stepped out of Megatron’s truck mode before the former leader of the Decepticons transformed into his bipedal mode. “Bumblebee, Collin. I assume that Sideswipe and Sunstreaker are presently in the other room?”

Bumblebee blinked a couple times, then shook off his shock and nodded. “Y-yeah; they’ve practically been inseparable since they got back. Strongarm’s been groaning something about having to deal with two Sideswipes now, which I don’t think she knows who exactly Sunstreaker _is.”_

Megatron snorted as First Aid and Jazz transformed, only for First Aid to shrink down into her Pretender form. “Indeed not. Although, the two of them together are certainly a force to be reckoned with.”

“Sounds like those two are close,” Lennox commented, getting the others’ attention.

“They’re twins,” First Aid replied. “A spark that split in two – of course they’re close.”

“First Aid, who are these two?” Bumblebee looked between Lennox and Epps, frowning.

“A couple soldiers from the base Joshua and Jolt are on.” First Aid motioned to the men in turn. “William Lennox and Robert Epps, these two are Bumblebee and Collin Carlsdale.”

“The World Jumper’s brother?” Epps looked Collin up and down. “I’m guessing you don’t act the age you look.”

“Depends on the situations I get into,” Collin replied with a grin. “You’ve been keeping an eye on Joshua and Jolt, then? Have they gotten into any trouble?”

“Not recently,” Lennox replied.

“Nobody knows what he gets up to in that lab of his, but we’ve heard things,” Epps added. “Explosions, things powering up loud enough to break windows – that lab of his costs us more to maintain than the rest of the buildings on that street. Probably.”

Collin chuckled. “I don’t doubt it. Even when I was younger, he was almost always doing things in his lab behind his house. He didn’t do field testing in there though – too close to an Energon deposit.”

Lennox and Epps exchanged looks. Collin frowned.

“You…didn’t know there was an Energon deposit under his lab?”

“He never said a word.” Epps should his head. “At least that explains where he gets all his energy from. If Galloway hears about this, he’s gonna freak, let me tell you.”

“He’d better not,” Maria muttered. “We have other things we have to worry about.” She looked at Bumblebee. “Did Sunstreaker tell you anything about where he’d been?”

Bumblebee frowned, then shook his head. “Not really; he just said that he was somewhere that no one of us would want to be and hasn’t said a word since then.”

“I’d agree with him on that, but there are a few things that have got to be said.” Jazz got down on one knee and looked at Bumblebee curiously. “So, how do I get this Pretender gear that the rest a’ ya’ll have?”

“First Aid can install it.” Bumblebee nodded to the medic. “It’ll take a few hours, though, and we should probably talk about what’s going on before you do that.”

“I believe the Quintessans are trying to make another move on Cybertron.”

Bumblebee stiffened, then turned slowly and looked at Maria with wide eyes. “No…no, you can’t – are you serious?”

“Who are the Quintessans?” Collin asked, confused.

“An – an alien race that _enslaved_ us _cycles_ before the war.” Bumblebee started pacing. “I only ran into them once – when they tried to get us again on Aquatron – but I wasn’t out of the Well yet when they got us at first. Optimus was…” Bumblebee trailed off. “Optimus was there for it.”

“Well, I was too.” Jazz jabbed a thumb at himself. “An’ let me tell you, OP was the best guy to have running intelligent interference behind the Quints’ back! If they think they’re gonna be able ta get at us just ‘cause he’s gone, they’ve got another thing coming!”

Megatron snorted. “The librarian? I find that a little difficult to believe.”

“Oh, believe me, he was a real go-to rebel guy when the Quints were around. After they left, he quieted down like everybody else.” Jazz elbowed Megatron in the side. “His rebellious streak didn’t start with you – no sir!”

“Who’s Optimus again?” Lennox asked.

“The original leader of the Autobots, before he sacrificed himself at the end of the war to bring Cybertron to live again,” Bumblebee explained. “He…he was the kind of figure you wanted to look up to.” His expression softened, then hardened in determination. “And if the Quints are looking to undo that _again,_ they’ve got another thing coming. But how is this connected to Sunstreaker?”

“He was being controlled by them using a Cerebro Shell,” Maria replied. “The same goes for Jazz just yesterday.”

“Not a fun experience, let me tell you.” Jazz rubbed the back of his neck and winced.

“But – if _you_ had one, and _Sunstreaker_ had one, and you were both…were both labeled as offline…” Bumblebee’s brow furrowed, and his eyes widened sharply. “Then that means that the others could very well be—“

“All things considered, it’s more than likely,” Maria said grimly. “And if it is the case, then Wildfire’s _mine_ to deal with.”

Lennox and Epps exchanged looks as Collin and Bumblebee gained grim expressions.

“This is definitely something that can’t wait.” Bumblebee looked at First Aid. “We’re going to have to hold off on installing the Pretender tech for now; I’ll get the others in here so that we can discuss what’s going on and what we can do to stop the Quintessans before they succeed in whatever it is they’re planning.” He turned and bolted into the next room.

“An’ I was really lookin’ forward ta bein’ human sized,” Jazz muttered, frowning.

“We have more pressing things to worry about than you being able to take on the form of a human for any length of time,” Megatron replied shortly. “If the Quintessans are to take any of us again, I doubt that Cybertron will be able to take it well. Is Ultra Magnus aware of this?”

“He might be,” First Aid replied. “He kicked us off the planet because we tried to find out what happened to the Cybertronians who disappeared. It could be he didn’t want the civilians to panic, but I don’t know if that’s the whole story.”

“We will need to get into contact with him,” Megatron muttered.

“Miko can,” Maria said as Bumblebee came back with the rest of the base’s occupants. “Joshua is going back to the base she is presently occupying – if he can tell her to get into contact with Ultra Magnus and confirm what is going on, then we might be able to warn them before it becomes too late for Cybertron to be able to do anything.”

“Warn them about what?” Sideswipe asked.

An identical young man standing with him, wearing yellow and with his hair being a bright yellow with black streaks along either side of his head, gained an uneasy expression and shifted his feet a little, not looking like he liked where the conversation was going.

“Hey!” Jazz pointed. “Is that Sunstreaker? How come he’s got the Pretender gear when we don’t?” He motioned between himself and Megatron, looking miffed.

“Jazz, _focus,”_ Maria hissed through gritted teeth.

Jazz looked down at Maria abruptly. “Whoa, talk about your killjoys.”

“What’s going…” Strongarm’s jaw dropped. ”Th-tha-that’s Megatron! What’s he doing here?!”

“Allying myself with you on account of the fact that the Quintessans seem to be making another move on Cybertron,” Megatron replied. “I had _thought_ that I would be able to live out my exile in _peace_ here until Jazz attempted to offline me in the middle of the desert.” He shot Jazz a look, which only caused the Autobot to shrug his shoulders sheepishly.

“Hey, man, ya know it wasn’t _completely_ me that was doing that, right?”

“I am more than aware of the fact, but that does not change what I remember of you attempting to choke the Energon flow from my Spark to my processor.” Megatron’s optics narrowed.

Sunstreaker swallowed nervously.

“Quintessans?” Bulkhead laughed nervously. “You – you’re joking, right? We beat those guys back on Aquatron – there’s no way they’d be willing to come after us again, right?”

“Considering they were using Cerebro Shells in order to control Jazz and Sunstreaker, I find that highly unlikely,” Maria replied. She folded her arms across her chest as Sunstreaker started to slowly back away from the rest of the group. “Joshua has looked at them both and confirmed that the symbol engraved inside wasn’t one that he’d seen before – five faces engraved over on top of each other.”

The group of Pretenders exchanged looks at Maria’s words as Sunstreaker kept moving back. Sideswipe noticed and reached back and pulled Sunstreaker back into the group by the front of his yellow jacket. “Bro? Is this true?”

Sunstreaker hesitated, then looked panicked. “They didn’t even _buff_ my _armor,_ Sideswipe. Do you know how _long_ it’s been since I was able to do cosmetic repairs?!” He groaned and put his head in his hands.

Sideswipe let go of his brother’s jacket. “That is serious.”

Jazz snorted. “You think _that’s_ bad? I think they had _me_ runnin’ aroun’ spying on everybody else. They probably know who’s on Earth an’ who ain’t by now.”

“But they don’t know about me.”

The group looked over at Maria.

“Considering that you have been absent from our plane of existence for the last twenty years, I should think not.” Megatron raised an optic ridge.

“Wait.” Coil frowned. “How bad _are_ the Quintessans? I was…wasn’t around for that.” He scratched his head in confusion.

Jazz did a double-take. “Wha – Coil? Didn’t think ya’d be lookin’ quite like that.”

Coil shrugged.

“Quintessans are alien, mechanical beings created by Quintus Prime who think they are superior in every way to Cybertronians,” Maria replied. “According to the Covenant, at least. They’ve tried to enslave Cybertronians before, and it appears they are trying again. We are going to have to do something in order to prevent them from succeeding this time, especially considering they have Cybertronians under their control right at this moment.” Her eyes narrowed.

The gathered Cybertronians and three humans looked at Maria with mixed emotions.

“Uh oh,” Bulkhead gulped. “So, if they’re back, then what are we gonna do?”

“Fight back by taking back those they took in the first place,” Megatron replied.

“I agree with that, but they’re still going to be coming regardless of anything we do,” Bumblebee replied. “Warning Ultra Magnus is definitely going to be a priority – get Joshua to tell Miko and send the message up to Cybertron, just in case we need reinforcements.”

“The Wreckers are definitely going to want to get in on this.” Wheeljack grinned widely and gave a thumbs-up. “I’ll make sure to shoot Springer an invite if we ever need the backup!”

“But how are we going to be able to know when we’re going to need it?” Strongarm argued. “Sunstreaker and Jazz just showed up on our doorstep! What about Starscream? O-or Prowl?”

“Starscream was taken?!” Megatron snarled.

“You’ve really been out of the loop, haven’t you?” Jazz looked Megatron up and down.

“I have been in a self-imposed exile ever since Cybertron was flooded with refugees who would have preferred to have my head on a platter than a hand to shake,” Megatron growled in reply. “I have been out of contact with most of Cybertron since that day; do you _think_ I would know that my former second-in-command had disappeared?”

“…good point.”

“They’re not the only ones how have disappeared,” First Aid spoke up. “Shape-Change, Ratchet, Wildfire, Sparkseer, and Soundwave vanished at the same time.”

Megatron clenched his fists sharply as Maria stiffened.

“If Soundwave is with them, then it’s possible any communications we could have with Cybertron would be monitored,” Maria said. “If that’s the case, it would be best if we developed a code of some kind in order to keep them off our backs, and they would have access to Cybertronian and Earth English, not to mention who knows how many other Earth languages you all decided to learn.” She looked at Jazz pointedly.

Jazz held up his servos. “Hey, most of the stuff in my head is music. They probably got more outta Soundwave than me.”

“And that is something to be afraid of,” Megatron muttered grimly. “We shall have to do something about finding him, but that will be difficult.”

“Shape-Change could find him, but as a shifter, she is going to be even more difficult to pin down,” Maria said. She tilted her head slightly. “We will need to keep an eye out for their Spark signatures, first and foremost. Do you know if those readings are still being kept in the database?”

“They are,” First Aid confirmed. “And we have computer power here – enough to put out a scan for their presence almost constantly.”

“Good. It might be wise to start that now, before we miss any other chances to find them.”

First Aid nodded and ran into the other room. Wheeljack followed after her.

“When they finish with that, First Aid can get you two Pretender Forms.” Bumblebee nodded to Megatron and Jazz. “And then we can start looking for where the others we thought were dead might be hiding out.”

Maria nodded curtly in response.

“In the meantime, we’d better make sure we’re ready.” Bumblebee looked over at Collin. “And you should probably get back to your family and make sure they’re safe.”

Collin hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “I still want to be in the middle of things. I’ve been sitting on the sidelines for far too long; it’s time I made a mark here too.”

“Only if you can,” Bumblebee replied.

“I work at a power plant in my free time and practice in a room padded with rubber, Bee; I think I can.” Collin held out a hand, sparks flying from his fingers.

Maria’s eyes widened sharply.

“The kids don’t have any powers yet, and I haven’t been showing off around them,” Collin added, seeing the look on Maria’s face. “I haven’t World Jumped at all, either, so I don’t think that it’s gonna pass down to my kids.” He paused. “Which might be a good thing, actually. I’m not sure yet.” He shrugged. “Well, I’d better get back – don’t want the family to worry. Keep me in touch?”

“Of course,” Bumblebee replied instantly. “You and Coil keep an eye out for anything suspicious.”

“Will do!” Collin motioned for Coil to follow after him, then started towards the exit from the base. Coil followed after him, giving Maria a short wave as he passed her.

Maria gave them a nod in return.

As soon as Collin and Coil had stepped out of the room, First Aid came back.

“The computer’s scanning for their signatures now, but I don’t know if it’s going to do us too much good.” She looked up at Megatron and put her hands on her hips. “Now let’s see about getting you two up to speed before this goes any further.”

Megatron and Jazz exchanged looks at that, but before they could say anything else, First Aid had already shifted to her Cybertronian form and grabbed an arm from each of them before dragging them to the other side of the room.

“Aid’s going to be at it for a few hours,” Bumblebee said. “We might as well sit back in the main room and wait for the computer to pick up something.”

Maria was already walking into the other room before Bumblebee even finished speaking.


	8. Chapter 8

**Maria’s POV**

Now that we’d done all we could and had to wait for the Quintessans to make their next move, I had some time to clear my head and consider what had just happened…and what was probably going to happen, sometime in the future.

Things were still the same here, from what I’d seen, at least. Twenty years’ absence didn’t mean that I was coming back to a futuristic world that was simply coated in robotics created by humankind. Something told me that interactions with the Cybertronians had stunted the progression of an artificial mechanical race that could take over the human one at any time.

Still, that didn’t mean people weren’t interested in it, if Galloway’s reactions to seeing me had been any indication.

The Cybertronians were the same too, but…different. Bumblebee clearly was the leader of the group that was now living on Earth, and the burden of leadership showed whether he was aware of it or not. There was a grimness, too, over everyone.

I wondered if it had to do with Optimus’ absence, twenty-one years gone, or the sudden realization that the Quintessans were coming back for another round.

I pushed the thought to the back of my mind. Right now, what was causing this mood didn’t matter, nor did the mood itself. I had been in far worse situations than this, and I knew that I was going to have to focus if I was to be able to help this dimension get back to normal as quickly as possible.

What could be considered normal. Any chance of that had no doubt been thrown out the window by now.

I sighed as I settled a little deeper into the couch, arms folded across my chest as I frowned at the computer and its map of the world, pulsing as the computer searched for spark signatures that were labeled as deceased in the Cybertronian database. I could see mine blinking in the corner that had the signatures of the other Sparks that were in the base, alongside a little warning signal that was flickering in the corner. It flickered and disappeared after a couple seconds, only to come back with a little line of text in Cybertronian.

_“Deceased Spark detected.”_

My brow furrowed. “Bumblebee, does Cybertron believe I’m dead as well?”

Bumblebee looked up at the monitor and blinked. His eyes widened sharply. Then he let out an annoyed groan and slapped himself in the forehead. “Someone probably noticed you looked like a human and figured you were supposed to be dead by now. Looks like we’ve got to get the attention of _Cybertron_ , too. That’s going to be fun. Not.” He shook his head and sighed out of annoyance. “I hope I can be there for when Ultra Magnus chews out the guy who labeled you offline, because they should have remembered that you’re a World Jumper and time for us means something entirely different for you.”

I frowned at that. Time…I hadn’t even considered its effects on me. I hadn’t had the time, when I had been fighting the Dark Arms and trying to reverse their World Collision.

I knew that time had been thrown out the window during that time, on all those worlds. Did that mean I had been affected by what had happened?

Reploids already lived far longer than normal humans because of the fact that mechanical parts were somewhat easier to replace than human ones. Did distortions in time cause that to change my lifespan even more?

I decided against thinking about it. Knowing that I would be living beyond the age that my parents had and – probably – beyond the ages of Matthew, Liz, and Collin was more than –

I paused that train of thought.

“Matthew was there with me,” I said aloud, getting the others to turn to look at me. “I should have thought that he would have returned with me at the same time. Either he appeared on Earth in a different location than I did, or he’s in another dimension somewhere and will come back at some point.”

“Matt was with you?” Bulkhead asked in surprise. “H-he was okay the last time you saw him, right?”

I nodded. I decided against telling them about the dark look he’d had in his eyes as we’d stormed into the final stronghold, ready to do what needed to be done in order to give Myra and I the chance we needed. The World Collision’s reversal had been on all our minds then, not anything else.

Bulkhead let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good. I don’t know what Sparkseer would do if he heard Matt wasn’t doin’ okay.”

“He’s been missin’ like the others,” Wheeljack pointed out. “And what do you think he’s gonna do? He doesn’t loose his temper.”

“Of course he does!” Bulkhead yelped. “He just does in ways nobody else does!”

I frowned. I’d never known Sparkseer to lose his temper. Either something had changed in the time I was absent, or Sparkseer simply let his anger out when I wasn’t present. I would have to ask Matthew about that when I saw him again.

I put the thought out of my mind. We had other things to think about besides a mech’s temper and what he would think if he heard about Matthew not being here at this very moment.

“If Shape-Change was taken, we’ll have to come up with a code of some kind in order to ensure that, if we meet face to face, she isn’t actually one of us,” I said, my mind moving from one of Wildfire’s friends to the next. “And it has to be something those of us present would know, not something that she would know right at this moment.”

“You’re already thinking that far ahead?” Strongarm blinked.

“We don’t know when we’re going to run into her,” I replied. “She could be disguised as someone here or someone on Cybertron. We don’t know for certain. So we need something that she won’t expect us to use as a code in order to make sure that we are who we are and not a shifter trying to look like someone we know.”

“Shape-Change can’t shift to anything smaller than her natural size,” Wheeljack spoke up. “If we want to prove who we are then we shift down to our Pretender forms and stay that way most of the time. We’re already almost always like this, so why not?”

“You forget the fact that Sunstreaker was able to shift down to Pretender form without First Aid installing it,” I replied. “Either that means Sunstreaker had the Pretender tech before the Quintessans took him, or they gave it to him _after_ they took him.”

I looked over at Sunstreaker, who was sitting next to Sideswipe on another couch. Sunstreaker looked uneasy and nervous, but then his expression became more serious.

“Sideswipe and I got it at the same time,” Sunstreaker said seriously. “Shape-Change never did.”

“Why?”

Sunstreaker shrugged. “She didn’t like the idea of being smaller than she was supposed to be. Shifters don’t like being the size they’re not supposed to be, I guess.”

That made some sense. Shape-Change would feel strange changing size; as a shifter, she would be more comfortable retaining her initial body shape, rather than shrinking down to another form – one that would probably permanently remain the same, instead of allowing her to change her appearance as much as she wanted.

I inclined my head slightly, then nodded. “All right. But if it becomes a problem and you aren’t able to shift back, it would be a good idea to have something, just in case.”

“What exactly is a shifter?” Lennox frowned. Considering he was surrounded by Cybertronians that all happened to be in human form, he and Epps were taking what we were talking about and the situation they’d found themselves in surprisingly well.

“A Cybertronian who can mimic other Cybertronians,” Bumblebee explained. “They’re pretty rare and usually keep to themselves, and rarely ever show what their own form looks like – except for Shape-Change, but she’s the odd one out for them.”

“We called her Arsenal back in the day because of how much weaponry she carried everywhere with her,” Sideswipe added with a knowing grin. “You should have seen her when she caught Cons by surprise! Ha!” He slammed a fist into an open palm, like he was ready to beat some Decepticons to dust himself.

“She was a spy first and foremost, though,” Bumblebee continued, looking over at Sideswipe with a raised eyebrow. He looked back at Lennox and Epps. “But she’s a Wrecker as well, so Bulkhead and Wheeljack spent a lot of time working with her. Jolt and Coil know her pretty well, too, since they interacted a lot during the war.”

“Really?” Epps raised an eyebrow. “That nerd cooped up in the lab spent time with a spy who carried all kinds a—“

“Jolt and Shape-Change were both gladiators in Kaon; they spent time sparring and battling opponents in the arenas together,” I called over. “Wildfire was Jolt’s first opponent; she tore his arm off in the ring and thought he was more of a nuisance than anything else at first.”

“Gladiator?” Lennox repeated. “Cybertronians have those?”

“Had,” Bumblebee corrected. “It’s…something we had from before the war, when we were still stuck in castes and no one was able to choose what they wanted to do. I wasn’t a part of that – I came after – but others were.”

“Yeah.” Wheeljack grunted. “Gladiator fights were all the rage for the lower castes when it came to entertainment. People volunteered or gave up their assigned jobs to participate. Last I checked, they’re trying to put together a few sports based off some Earth ones to help work off some steam. Don’t know if any of them have taken off yet, though.”

“Huh.” Lennox looked thoughtful.

“I bet they’ll take to football _really_ well,” Epps commented dryly.

I snorted, which drew some attention back to me as the others stared at my reaction.

Bumblebee shook his head and looked away from me, although he kept glancing over in my direction as he continued. “Cybertron’s still got some tension yet – some Autobots and Decepticons don’t like the idea of having to live next to each other after having fought for so long. I’m worried that whatever the council does might end up making things worse.”

“I’m sure old Maggy will be fine.” Wheeljack waved off Bumblebee’s concerned tone. “He knows what he’s doing. I mean, he had to deal with me when we were in the Wreckers, so why can’t he handle a planet-ful of us?”

“Jackie, you _left,_ remember?” Bulkhead pointed out.

“So?”

I frowned. If that was the case, then Cybertron was going to be a political warzone. The Quintessans couldn’t have picked a better time to attempt to take over – Cybertron was whole and not technically warring with itself, yes, but there was still enough trouble on it that the Quintessans could sneak in and try to give the Cybertronians their leadership – and enslave the Cybertronians in the process.

Which meant that we were going to have to act quickly if we were going to be able to find the others who had been taken already.

I steepled my fingers in front of me and frowned at the computer’s monitor, silently willing that a familiar Spark signature would make an appearance. We needed to find them – and fast.

A loud alarm suddenly went off, causing my eyes to shoot up to the map instantly as the others turned to look up.

A small number of glowing dots had appeared on the map of the States, with little alerts next to each one.

_Alert: Deceased Spark Signature Detected._

My mouth quirked up in a confident smirk for a moment, then faded back into a serious expression. “There we go.” I rose up from the couch and approached the monitor, focusing on each location. “I don’t see Soundwave.”

“They must be keeping him somewhere else.” Bumblebee quickly moved to the keyboard and started typing. “But…it looks like… _Ratchet_ is the closest? That doesn’t make any sense – wouldn’t they need him to do repairs on the others if they got hurt?”

“You forget that the Quintessans enslaved the Cybertronians before; they probably know how you all work already,” I replied. “Come on; let’s get to Ratchet before they call him back.”

“Right.” Bumblebee turned to look at the rest of us. “If he has a Cerebro Shell like Jazz and Sunstreaker did, we’re going to need to disable that. Maria, you’ve been able to handle that so far, so I’ll leave that up to you. Bulkhead, Wheeljack, go with her.”

“Us?” Wheeljack looked between himself and Bulkhead in surprise. “Two Wreckers going after a medic? Are you sure that’s needed?”

“Plus, isn’t Ratchet too old to be all that much of a threat?” Strongarm added.

Bulkhead shuddered. “You won’t be saying that when you face the wrath of his wrench.”

“And if he can get down to human size after having a Pretender form added, then he is going to be able to whack us all regardless.” I rose to my feet, the thought settling in the back of my mind and sending an uneasy chill down my spine. “Let’s find him, before the Quintessans give him botched Synthetic Energon and make him even more dangerous.”

Wheeljack looked between Bulkhead and me as my words sank in and his eyes widened. “Oh. Uh…well, do we have to, right now?”

“Come on, Jackie, we’re gonna have to do it eventually.” Bulkhead grabbed one of Wheeljack’s arms and started out of the room. “You coming, Maria?”

“I’m coming.” I followed after them. “Bumblebee, keep an eye out for Soundwave if you can. And get in touch with Joshua and tell him we need a proper Ground Bridge. We’re going to need it if we’re going to find all of them.”

“I-I’ll do what I can,” Bumblebee called back as we stepped out of the room.

We had a mission now, and a medic to find.


	9. Chapter 9

**Maria’s POV**

Ratchet was definitely not very far at all from our base, which was extremely worrysome.

The fact that he was in California stalking kids in the suburbs made me wonder what the scrap the Quintessans were thinking, going after humans.

All the same, as soon as Wheeljack and Bulkhead – with me sitting in Bulkhead’s front passenger seat – rolled up the street and stopped, facing Ratchet, he stopped short and transformed instantly.

The wrench was already in his hands.

“Scrap,” Bulkhead muttered.

I quickly moved out of Bulkhead’s vehicle form seconds before he and Wheeljack transformed, then shifted into my armor and moved back, quickly scanning the street.

We were in the middle of a city – or, a part of a city – and that meant there were civilians in the area.

“Be careful,” I called. “We don’t want any innocents getting hurt! Try to keep Ratchet in one place – the damage to this area _has_ to be minimal.”

“Minimal?” Wheeljack snorted. “Kid, you’re talking to the _Wreckers._ Do you really think we have time to—“

“Then we need to draw him away from here!” I barked back.

Ratchet started raising his wrench.

“Move move move!” Bulkhead yelped. He quickly moved down another street, people poking their heads out of their houses as his feet shook the ground.

I started yelling at the civilians. “Everyone clear the area, NOW! We are attempting to subdue a Cybertronian who has lost control of himself and will act hostile against us!”

A couple people turned their heads in my direction just as Ratchet threw his wrench at Bulkhead, conking him on the back of the head and sending the wrench flying back into his hand.

“Oh scrap,” Wheeljack muttered. “That thing’s a Primus-damned boomerang.”

I didn’t feel the need to say that I’d seen a version of Ratchet use that before as Bulkhead slammed to the ground, causing the nearby streets to shake and send people streaming out of them in all directions. I turned my focus to Ratchet as he started to advance towards Wheeljack, who pulled out his swords.

“All right; let’s make sure he doesn’t throw that thing again while there are so many humans around.” Wheeljack started running towards Ratchet as the humans scattered down the street and as far away from the fight as possible, staying out from under the Cybertronians’ feet.

Ratchet’s wrench collided with Wheeljack’s blades, the medic holding the wrench in both hands in order to keep the blades from slicing through him.

Bulkhead started to come back up the street behind us as I stepped onto my hoverboard, then started to move around behind Ratchet in order to knock off the Cerebro Shell, shooting around his legs before rising up behind his back as Ratchet and Wheeljack continued to push back and forth with their respective weapons.

Wheeljack grunted. “Man, he’s got more muscle than I’d been expecting him to!”

Bulkhead stopped behind Wheeljack and shifted one of his hands into his close-combat, wrecking ball weapons. “Jackie, move – I’m gonna whack him over the head and I don’t want to hit you.”

I rose up to be level with Ratchet’s neck and frowned down at the bug that was attached to the back of his neck, activating my Buster and aiming.

“I’ve got this,” Wheeljack hissed back. “Besides, it’s gonna be over in a few seconds here, can’t you just—“

Ratchet pushed, sending Wheeljack stumbling back into Bulkhead and sending them both crashing to the ground right before I unleashed a Charged Stun Shot.

_Brrrzzp!_

Ratchet collapsed down on top of Wheeljack as the Cerebro Shell popped off and landed on the street behind him, legs in the air. It twitched a few times before I hit it again with another Stun Shot, sending up a puff of smoke as it stopped moving completely.

I lowered my Buster as Wheeljack and Bulkhead pushed Ratchet off and scrambled to their feet. “That felt too easy. It’s likely that they will be sending the Cybertronians they have out in pairs now in order to make things more difficult for us.”

“I’m surprised they haven’t done that yet, since they lost two,” Wheeljack commented.

“Three,” Bulkhead corrected, looking down at Ratchet. “We’d, uh…we’d better get him back to base before something else happens. I don’t want to get into any more trouble than we already have.”

I nodded in agreement, then flew down closer to Ratchet, frowning. He hadn’t recovered as quickly as Jazz and Sunstreaker had earlier – was this because of his age? Or something else?

I got close to Ratchet’s face when his optics snapped open, blue tinted with green, and he yelped and scrambled to his feet fast enough that he nearly whacked Bulkhead in the chin with his head.

“What in the name of the AllSpark?!” Ratchet looked between the three of us sharply. “What are you – Maria! Where have you been you little—“

“Taking care of matters that needed my attention,” I cut him off. “We have other things to worry about right now, Ratchet. Like that Cerebro Shell behind you I just toasted.”

“Cerebro…?” Ratchet turned and looked behind him before stiffening abruptly. “What – where did –“

“That was on the back of your neck, old man,” I replied. “Let’s get out of here before the Quintessans decide to send more and get all of us for getting you loose; I’d rather not see that happen at any point.”

“Let’s do something about this little nightmare first.” Wheeljack went over to the Cerebro Shell and stabbed a sword through it. “Come on. Let’s take this thing out of town and burn it or something.”

Bulkhead slammed his fists together and nodded in agreement.

“Could one of you tell me what in the name of Primus is going on here?!” Ratchet demanded. “The last thing that I can remember clearly is working in my medical lab on Cybertron when Sunstreaker came in complaining about something!”

Bulkhead and Wheeljack exchanged looks at Ratchet’s words.

“We, uh…we have a lot to catch you up on,” Bulkhead said carefully. “Come on – Maria, you go with Jackie and take care of that thing; I’ll bring Ratchet back to base and fill him in on what’s going on.”

“You sure?” Wheeljack frowned. “We don’t wanna get ambushed by anybody that might be running around waiting to slap one of these onto us.” He waved the stabbed Cerebro Shell around a little. “I’d ring in Bumblebee and see if he knows if there’s anyone else around here, but really, do we _want_ to possibly get Soundwave’s attention? Probably not. So let’s go burn this thing to pieces first, then head back to the base together. Sound good?”

“An excellent notion,” I agreed.

Ratchet turned and looked at me. “And you probably need a—“

“First Aid took care of that already; let’s just get you back to her so that she can make sure _you’re_ all right,” I said pointedly, cutting Ratchet off. “Come on. Let’s get out of town before I torch that bug.”

“Sounds like a plan!” Wheeljack turned and started walking down the street, holding his sword and the skewered mind-control device in front of him like a trophy. Bulkhead helped Ratchet move out of town himself as I followed after them on my hoverboard, watching the people in town poke their heads out of their homes as we passed.

There were police sirens in the distance.

“Wheeljack, pick up the pace,” I called. “We’ve got company!”

“I got it.” Wheeljack started running, Bulkhead starting to move to pick up the pace with Ratchet as I followed right behind them.

It didn’t take us too long to clear the town, although it took me longer than I would have liked, considering that we were moving in bipedal mode and not with the three Cybertronians in vehicle mode. Still, we were able to get out of town before the police were able to catch up with us.

I got the feeling that was going to come and bite us in the back at some point.

**Space Rip**

“Sir? Sir, you might want to have a look at this.”

The taller of the two Cybertronians, with towers of metal on his shoulders that rose up level with the top of his head, leaned over the other and looked at the monitor in front of him. He stiffened – but only slightly. Far be it from him to suggest that he could be startled as much as the younger generation.

“Th-this…this shouldn’t be possible, right?” the younger mech looked up at him worriedly. “I-I mean, they were declared deceased cycles ago! It’s not like they can just come back…can they?”

The older mech frowned at the screen, and at the alerts that had popped up from their sensors on Earth. “Considering what I know, they may be less likely than you think. However, one of these signals merely disappeared; most of you simply _considered_ her to have passed.”

The younger mech looked between the monitor and the other Cybertronian, eyes wide. “Wh-what are you saying, Ultra Magnus, sir?”

Ultra Magnus paused. Technically, because of the council, he wasn’t allowed to make executive decisions. However, they weren’t watching him as closely as they had used to – now considering him retired, as they had no need for military commanders, they let him run a tight ship elsewhere unless they needed his guidance.

Alpha Trion had disappeared elsewhere, hiding himself away under his own pretenses and leaving the Hall of Records in Iacon to be run by younger hands. Wherever it was the old bot had gone to, Ultra Magnus didn’t see it as much of an issue.

Or, at least, he didn’t before this moment.

“Update the archives and send out an alert to the Autobots and Decepticons on a secure frequency that wasn’t in the Decepticon databanks,” Ultra Magnus said. “And disconnect any communications to Earth.”

“Sir?”

“Any information we’ve gleaned from that planet now is likely to be compromised.” Ultra Magnus paused. “I am going to ready my shuttle and contact old allies. Lay low, and do not talk to anyone who is behaving oddly.”

“Yes, sir!”


	10. Chapter 10

“Are you telling me that the Quinessans are _back_ after what happened on Aquatron?!” Ratchet swerved on the road.

Maria rapped a fist against the steering wheel of his ambulance mode gently. “Eyes on the road, doc. And yeah, they’re definitely back – Joshua found their signature all over the Cerebro Shells that Sunstreaker and Jazz had stuck to the backs of their necks, and I bet we would have found one in the one on you too, if we hadn’t needed to destroy it.”

She thought back to the melted pile of smoking metal they’d left behind on an old back road before starting to drive back to the base. She wished they were on the other side of the mountains so that they could have left it in the desert instead.

“They should have learned their lesson from what happened when they tried a second time,” Ratchet muttered. “Cybertronians are not beings that _should_ be controlled! And we _won’t_ be controlled – certainly not after that mess of an attempt they threw on us back during our exile!”

Maria blinked. She hadn’t expected Ratchet to get this angry over it – panicked and concerned, yes, but the way he was acting now was definitely something else entirely. She frowned. “Ratchet. They most likely saw the weakness Cybertron has in recovering from the war and decided to take advantage of it; that’s all that there is to be said. We have to prove that there are no weaknesses here.”

Ratchet snorted. “Easier said than done! They know our inner workings, what makes us tick. I swear they could take a Spark and put in something that wasn’t supposed to be alive in order to give it life! I don’t want to seem them attempting that, but….” He trailed off and shuddered, Maria bouncing a little in her buckled seat has his frame rattled. “I hate the Quintessans as much as they next Cybertronian, but I don’t want to know what they might think of us in terms of experiments!”

“Yeah, that’s Shockwave’s forte,” Maria muttered. “Or it _was._ ” She paused. “We’re going to need to rescue the others. So far, it’s only been you, Jazz, and Sunstreaker. We still need to find the others and do something about what the Quintessans are planning.”

“Are you _aware_ of what it is they are planning?”

Maria said nothing.

“Well, considering that you do not, you should be more careful about barreling after the rest of—“

“Wildfire’s one of the Cybertronians who’s been taken. So is Soundwave.”

Ratchet fell silent at that.

“I am concerned about what it is they are planning on doing with the Cybertronians they have captured and when they will attempt to take over Cybertron. Not if.” Maria paused. “I don’t know what’s coming, and I don’t like it. So for now, we aim to rescue those who have been taken, then do something about turning the tables completely on the Quintessans. That’s my plan.”

Ratchet said nothing for a few minutes, following after Wheeljack and Bulkhead as they came closer to the base in the mountains. “You sound far, far different from what I remember of you. Where have you been, Maria?”

Maria leaned back in the car seat, frowning a little. “Where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing doesn’t pertain to what’s going on now.”

“Actually, it does. I haven’t seen you this focused or figure out the source of an issue this quickly – Collin never said you could see the source of a problem this quickly.”

“I have sources I am capable of using and I can infer from data that we’ve found what the problem is, that’s all it is.” Maria shrugged. “I have the Covenant. I have information on what they did to Cybertronians in the past, and I connected the dots from there.”

Ratchet said nothing for about half a mile. Maria didn’t say anything to break the silence, either, and seemed about ready to settle into a light recharge when Ratchet finally spoke up.

“You do realize you are going against a race of mechanical beings who not only know how we work inside and out, but that they are also great manipulators.”

“I know. I read the Covenant thoroughly; I am aware of what they have been described as and what it is that they’re capable of.”

“Then I should hope that you realize they have planned for nearly every contingency that there possibly can be from us in order to ensure they win in almost every scenario we might put up against them.”

“Do they really expect that their computers will be able to tell them if they are successful in the long run?” Maria scoffed.

“Yes. But they did not count on one thing happening.”

Maria blinked at that, then raised an eyebrow. “And what is that?”

“You.”

Maria tilted her head to one side at that as Ratchet kept going.

“As far as I can remember of what happened, the monsters seem to think that World Jumpers aren’t real live beings and therefore shouldn’t be considered in any sort of capacity as possible roadblocks. They thought you were a human with a suit of armor until I was forced to tell them otherwise. Now they think you’re some Mini-Con Pretender – the first of them, long before the rest of us began adding that alt mode to our systems – and that you’re not something to consider a serious threat without Cybertronians of our size to back you up.”

Maria snorted. “I took down Sunstreaker just fine without any other assistance; I suppose that throws a wrench into their plans.”

“That’s the hope,” Ratchet admitted. “It should slow them down by a small portion, at least, and I doubt that a human’s natural unpredictability will help them find a way around your reappearance.” He sounded vaguely amused at the idea, but he was gruffly serious too. “But fighting against the Quintessans will not be easy.”

“I don’t expect it to be,” Maria replied. “Especially considering that they are capable of bringing down Cybertronians with various abilities. Fighting Wildfire is a battle that will most likely be my hardest, as she knows all my moves and could very well catch me off-guard if I’m not careful.”

Ratchet gave a short hum at that. “I doubt you will have as hard a time as you think. Considering that you and Wildfire both have the same ability, then you have a more level playing field than the rest of us. But enough of Wildfire – what do you intend to do about Soundwave?”

“We would need to know where it is that he is located, first,” Maria replied. “Then we could hunt him down and release him in person, rather than letting the Quintessans come to us by continuing to broadcast a signal of any kind. I assume that’s how they know that I am now on Earth.”

“Unfortunately, yes. Cybertron was alerted of the fact that you were back and that alerted the Quintessans, as far as I’m aware.”

“So then Ultra Magnus might be aware of the fact that I’m back.” Maria tapped her chin in thought. “We’ll deal with that as it comes; you wouldn’t happen to know where it is they have him.”

“Under lock and key, so far as I’m aware.” Ratchet grumbled something under his breath that sounded like a stream of curses directed at the Quintessans.

“Then we’re going to have to bide our time and wait for an opening in order to find him,” Maria said with a frown. “We can rescue any ground soldiers that get sent out in the meantime – do you know why it is that you were driving around in those suburbs?”

“…I believe I was looking for someone,” Ratchet replied carefully. “Someone with a connection to Cybertronians.”

“If it was Collin, he’s going to be terrified for the sake of his kids, I think.”

Ratchet stiffened. “Collin has spawned more of your family?!”

“Yes he has, but I haven’t had the chance to meet them yet and as far as I know he could go all protective Dad mode and sic Coil on the Quintessans without a second thought for trying to go after him or his kids.” Maria paused in thought. “We could use that defensive offense to our advantage, if the Quintessans aren’t aware of how protective we are of our young.”

Ratchet snorted, but it was a shaky sound. “Yes, well. While they were very thorough in investigating the culture of the world, they certainly didn’t take into account the way that certain individuals may react to having their family placed in danger. Or react to coming home and finding that their allies have been placed in a less than ideal situation – where have you been, Maria? When you and your parents disappeared, a good number of us were very much concerned when you didn’t come back as quickly as you had in the past.”

Maria said nothing, her expression hardening at the questions. “I was fighting a war against monsters that killed my parents. If the Quintessans decide they want to take it to that point, I am going to make sure they do not cause as much trouble as the Dark Arms did for multiple dimensions at once.”

Ratchet fell silent at that.

**Time Break**

When they arrived back at the base, Bumblebee ran out of the human sized room and shifted to his Cybertronian one so quickly that he nearly threw Ratchet off-balance when he tackle-hugged him. “Ratchet! You’re back!”

Ratchet spluttered. “Of course I’m back! Do you really expect that I would be gone forever just because of some overbearing, far too-proud fools who don’t know a Spark from an empty processor?” He looked over Bumblebee as the yellow and black mech pulled back from the medic. “You seem to be doing well, despite the events that led you here.”

“And you’re taking what’s going on pretty well,” Bumblebee responded.

“Well, I had a very well-informed passenger,” Ratchet replied. His expression darkened. “The Quintessans are aware of Maria’s presence here, but they think she is nothing more than a Mini-Con disguised as a human in some small way. They don’t seem to think that she is a World Jumper, or related to Collin in any way. They sent me out to find his family and take them; we’re lucky that you saw me and intervened before then.”

Bumblebee frowned at that. “They wanted to…why do they want Collin? That doesn’t make any sense – he’s just a human as far as they know, right?”

“A human with connections to us, yes.” Ratchet looked over at Bulkhead and Wheeljack, who exchanged nervous expressions. “It’s likely that they think they can get information from him, rather than what they can get through Soundwave, and even that is going to start to slow to a stop because of what has just happened.”

“What, you mean us rescuing you?” Bulkhead asked.

Ratchet shook his head. “Cybertron’s severed all connection to Earth’s communication systems – rather abruptly may I add.”

Bulkhead, Wheeljack, and Bumblebee exchanged looks at that.

“How do you know?” Bumblebee responded. “Did they tell you or—“

“They said they were looking for information, and taking into account what I see here now and what Maria did for me – and probably has done for others already – then it’s likely that Cybertron has become aware of the fact that Maria is back as well as others of us and has reacted accordingly.” Ratchet’s expression darkened. “At least, that is my hope, if Ultra Magnus has his head settled on his shoulders properly. Otherwise I may have to whack it back into place myself.”

Ratchet’s wrench was suddenly in his hands, causing the others to step back from him a little.

“Ratchet, put the wrench down, no one needs your bedside manner just yet.” First Aid stepped out from the other half of the base and shifted up to her Cybertronian form, not even breaking stride as she stopped in front of him.

Ratchet blinked in surprise at her, but he obliged and the wrench disappeared from his hands. “First Aid, I—“

“I’m just glad you’re still okay.” First Aid looked Ratchet over, then smacked him upside the head with a servo. “Just make sure that nothing like that happens again, all right? I don’t want to see you get taken again!”

Ratchet winced at the hit, but he didn’t protest. If anything, he gave a small, almost sheepish smile instead and nodded a little. “Seems you’ve grown a bit in my absence.”

“Well, I had to fill in a hole that needed filling, considering you disappeared before anyone realized you were gone,” First Aid replied. Her tone was snappish. “Ratchet, what were you _doing_ when those things took off with you?”

“The last that I can remember clearly before being taken was that I was closing up my clinic when I was attacked from behind,” Ratchet replied honestly. “My guess is that they required a medic who had data they needed in order to repair more recently-born Cybertronians properly, and as I have patients regularly….” He trailed off, not needing to say anymore than that.

First Aid’s eyes narrowed at that. “If that’s the case, then have they installed the Pretender programming in anyone yet? Sunstreaker had it, but only because he had it before he was taken.”

Ratchet considered the question. “From what I remember, they deemed that ability to hide among other races one that wasn’t needed. They didn’t seem to be aware of the fact that Sunstreaker had it, but I wouldn’t put it past them if they became aware when I wasn’t in the room with them. Why?”

“Jazz didn’t have it, and I’m hoping that you don’t, either, because then there might be a chance that we could just be looking for Cybertronians and not humans disguised as Cybertronians. If Shape-Change got that ability—“

“Then she could become anyone in either our size or the human’s size, and then it would be hard to tell whether or not she was under their control or if one of us had been taken again,” Ratchet finished, nodding grimly. “I can see how that would be a problem.”

“So?” Bumblebee asked. “Do you think they might have slipped it into her programming without her noticing or something?”

“Highly unlikely; a shifter’s programming is almost impossible to pin down, considering how often they can slide from one form to another and change themselves to mimic those they appear to be. If they intend to pin Shape-Change’s programming down in order to give her a human form, they are up for an impossible task. Even if she had wanted one, she would be unable to take advantage of that technology.”

Maria considered that from where she stood on the floor, then nodded. It made sense, from a medical standpoint; Ratchet did know what he was talking about as well, so that certainly helped.

“So, I assume you are planning on ensuring that I am still in one piece despite the fact that Bulkhead and Wheeljack hardly did any damage to me?” Ratchet asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes.” First Aid grabbed his arm and dragged him over to the medical berth on the other side of the room. “Wheeljack, Bulkhead, don’t think you can sneak off!”

The two mechs winced at that, then dragged their feet over to the medical bay as Bumblebee shifted down to his Pretender form.

“Come on, Maria.” Bumblebee motioned for her to follow him back to the other room in the base. “There’s something that I think you’re going to want to see.”

Maria followed after him into the other room, frowning. “Do we have a fix on the locations of the other Cybertronians yet?”

“We’re working on it, but that’s not what I was talking about.” Bumblebee looked at Maria with a grin. “Cybertron knows you’re back – we got a quick message from Ultra Magnus right before the connection was severed completely. They know what’s going on, and I think they’re planning on seeing if they can help.”

“Good news, but we still have to worry about Soundwave possibly interfering with any connection we might have with anyone outside the base,” Maria pointed out in reply. “If they know that there are some people on Cybertron who are aware of what is going on, then they may redouble their efforts and make it even more difficult to rescue those who have been taken.”

“I know.” Bumblebee nodded. “We’ll have to keep an eye out for him, but in the meantime, we have to split everyone up in order to get at all the Cybertronians that just showed up on our systems.”

Maria and Bumblebee stopped in front of the computer monitor, Maria looking up at the map and frowning.

“It’s interesting that they all seem to be focused on America and not anywhere else,” Maria commented. She frowned. “Is it because the last moments of the Autobot-Decepticon War took place here?”

“Maybe?” Bumblebee shrugged. “But we were kind of all over the place; the only reason we were stationed here was because we crashed here and the United States government found us. Otherwise, things could have ended up differently.”

“I don’t doubt it.” Maria paused in thought, frowning. “What about the Maximals and the Predacons? Have they lost anyone to the disappearances?”

“Not that I’m aware of,” Bumblebee replied. “They’ve insisted on keeping out of affairs on Cybertron for the most part; I don’t think they’re aware of the Quintessans and the issues they could cause, but Joshua and Jolt might be changing that.”

“Considering that they’re aware of what’s going on, I’m not surprised,” Maria replied. “Does this mean we will be receiving assistance from them, or that they will merely be protecting their own?”

“We’ll have to see what they think,” Bumblebee replied. “What they do is up to them, especially Galvatron, since he’s pretty much the only leader they have right now.”

“Galvatron? I thought that Predaking would technically be leading them.” Maria frowned.

“He used to, but then Joshua found Galvatron and Galvatron kicked him off his throne.” Bumblebee pointed to New Mexico. “He has a base out there and has officers spread across the states to keep an eye on any disputes the other Maximals and Predacons might have.”

“Uh-huh.” Maria frowned, storing that information for later. “So we may get assistance but it’s not something that we should expect.” She eyed the blinking dots on the map, all sequestered in the United States: Oregon, one circling slowly somewhere over the east coast near Virginia, up in Minnesota, down south in New Mexico. “But we will need to be able to get all of them at once.”

“Easy enough.” Bumblebee grinned. “We’re all ready to jump into action at a moment’s notice. Just say the word, Maria.”

Maria tilted her head at that slightly, considering. Then she nodded a little. “All right. Let’s reach those we can before the Quintessans pull them back.” She turned and looked at the rest of the room. “All right. I have a plan, but I will need all of you to cooperate. Are you ready to catch the Quintessans by surprise?”

She was met with determined expressions and glinting teeth as one figure in particular grinned widely.

Maria nodded. “Let’s roll.”


	11. Chapter 11

They weren’t able to hit all of the locations at once, and considering that they had to drive instead of use a Ground Bridge in order to get to them that meant they couldn’t waste time considering who was going where.

The final plan was to split into twos and head to four different locations, leaving behind some to watch the base. Bumblebee and Strongarm were going to Minnesota, where a rogue police car had been spotted patrolling the roads and not answering the radio. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were heading out to the area in Virginia where a plane had been spotted circling randomly above areas where very few humans were living – mostly because they claimed their Jet Judo was rusty and they wanted to get back into the swing of things. Wheeljack and Megatron were heading up to Oregon to look into what the locals were calling a “cryptid sighting,” and Maria and Jazz were heading south to New Mexico, where temperatures had recently been climbing unusually.

Maria knew what that meant, and so did the others. She would have insisted in going on alone were it not for the fact that she was small and could have easily been grabbed and crushed underfoot if left alone.

Bumblebee moved around on the road, shifting between lanes on the highway and moving around cars as he tried to get closer to the police car that had gotten the attention of the local Twin Cities police forces.

“I still don’t see why you didn’t want to tell the local law enforcement everything,” Strongarm commented from behind Bumblebee. “I know that the Quintessans shouldn’t be talked about very much to the locals, but telling them that Prowl is a troublemaker?”

“I made it sound like there was something wrong with his processor and they took it,” Bumblebee replied. “Humans still don’t know how we work and honestly we’d like to keep it that way for a while. Making it sound like he has a virus or something like that is easier than telling them that there’s an alien race that wants to conquer the rest of the universe and they’re starting with us. We don’t want to make the human civilians panic.”

“Right.” Strongarm would have hit herself for having forgotten that. The humans may be aware of Cybertronians and some of what they were capable of, but there were still some things they were keeping secret from the organics for the safety of both their species.

Bumblebee had said he didn’t want MECH happening again, whatever that meant. Since he had been on Earth before, Strongarm decided that she’d follow his lead on interacting with humans.

It didn’t take the two of them long to catch up to Prowl. The police car vehicle mode was going the speed limit exactly, with a perfection that humans wouldn’t want to hit – they always wanted to go faster, which Strongarm thought was ridiculous and unsafe in ordinary conditions.

But the fact that Prowl hadn’t even put a holoform in the driver’s seat was _very_ unwise.

Strongarm’s academy instincts took over. “Pull over!”

“Strongarm!” Bumblebee yelped in alarm. “Don’t—“

Prowl swerved as he turned backwards, putting himself in reverse to face the two of them before a pair of blasters shifted out of the doors on his sides.

“Oh scrap,” Bumblebee cursed.

The blue laser blasts that followed had them swerving all over the highway as cars and trucks swerved to get out of the way. Bumblebee would have flinched at the crashing sounds that came up behind them if he was in a bipedal form, but as it was, the holoform sitting at the driver’s wheel – which looked like his Pretender form – did all the flinching for him.

“We have to get him away from the civilians!” Strongarm yelled over. “Where can we push him off the highway?”

“We do that here, we’re going to end up in the town!” Bumblebee swerved to avoid another laser as they drove over a bridge that went over a street lined with gas stations and fast food joints. “We have to get back out into the country, or else who knows what’s going to happen!”

“Right!”

Strongarm and Bumblebee lunged forward, engines revving loudly as they caught up to Prowl as he continued to shoot at them. A few laser blasts tried to take them out and nearly did.

“Prowl’s an unusually poor shot,” Bumblebee noted. “Something’s definitely up.”

“Do you think it’s the Cerebro Shell?” Strongarm responded.

“Probably. Strongarm, we’re in farmland. Blast him into that cornfield over there!”

“With pleasure!”

Strongarm surged ahead and slammed into Prowl’s right side, sending him swerving into the next lane. He tried to turn in order to correct himself, but Strongam slammed into him again and sent him careening off the road and down into the corn field.

Bumblebee turned sharply and drove down after Prowl, Strongarm following after him.

Bumblebee transformed before Prowl did, the black and white Praxian standing tall. Strongarm followed suit moments later, bringing her fists up and ready for a fight at a moment’s notice.

“Remember what we’re going after,” Bumblebee said.

“Right.” Strongarm prepared herself, ready to leap into the fray at a moment’s notice.

Prowl _moved._

Bumblebee yelped as Prowl lunged at him, claws extended. He was barely able to get out of the way in time, although the fact that he had one of his doorwings clipped caused him to stumble and yell in pain.

“He’s fast!” Strongarm ducked a swipe, then lunged at Prowl herself in order to get him to stop moving. She tried to tackle him, but he sidestepped and dropped an arm on her back, forcing her into the cornfield and covering her in still-unripe ears of corn. She grunted at the impact and started to force herself to her feet, but Prowl planted a foot on her back and pushed her down again.

“Blur would be a good help right about now,” Bumblebee muttered, thinking back to a faster bot who could shoot past everyone in sight. He activated his blasters and started shooting at Prowl, forcing the mind controlled mech to get off Strongarm and start towards Bumblebee.

Strongarm scrambled to her feet as Bumblebee dodged away from Prowl again, being careful to move his doorwings out of the way before Prowl could slash at them again. As he did, Strongarm noticed the bug-like device secured to Prowl’s back.

“I see it!”

Bumblebee ducked a punch from Prowl and shot again at the mech, but Prowl dodged, forcing Strongarm to move as well in order to avoid getting stung. “Then hit it! I’ll keep distracting him from this end – you go ahead and knock him out!”

“Got it!” Strongarm activated one of her blasters and aimed it at Prowl’s back as Bumblebee kept shooting, trying to keep the Cybertronian in place as best as possible while also keeping him distracted.

Unfortunately, Bumblebee’s distraction didn’t prove to be enough. The sound of Strongarm activating her blasters caused him to turn sharply before a pair of rocket launchers suddenly activated on his shoulders and aimed at her.

“Scrap!” Strongarm started to move to dodge, but the cornfield they’d chosen as a battlefield didn’t offer her very good footing, especially considering that the vegetation and loose earth weren’t meant to hold up a Cybertronian very well.

The rocket launchers prepared to fire, but Bumblebee moved first by firing a shot of his own at Prowl’s back.

_Brzzt!_

Prowl stiffened suddenly as Bumblebee’s stingers hit their mark, the rocket launchers powering down abruptly before Prowl fell to his knees.

Bumblebee lowered his blasters and breathed a sigh of relief. “There we go. I was worried for a minute there that he’d end up getting us instead or something.”

Strongarm deactivated her blaster. “We’d better get that thing off him before we relax.”

“Right.” Bumblebee gained a determined expression and approached Prowl from behind, keeping one of his weapons active just in case he would need to shoot at Prowl or the Cerebro Shell that was still stuck to the back of his neck. “We’ll have to tear it apart and drop it off in a junk yard, somewhere that the humans will never find it in one piece and figure out how to put it together.”

“Agreed.” Strongarm looked at Prowl and the blank expression he had, optics dark. “If anyone back at the Academy heard about what happened to Prowl, I’m not sure what my classmates would have thought.”

“Because he’s being controlled by monsters that we fought against before and during the war and he’s not acting like himself?” Bumblebee zapped the Shell again, causing it to let go of Prowl with a loud shriek before he hit the more vulnerable underbelly with a couple shots, fusing up the inner wiring.

“Well, that and the fact that the two of us were able to take him out.” Strongarm frowned. “Prowl is…is supposed to be an excellent strategist. If we were able to take him out so easily, then does that mean we’re _better_ than him or—“

“Not in the least.” Bumblebee looked at Strongarm with a serious expression. “Prowl is among the smartest Cybertronians I know. If anything, either the Quintessans were forced to suppress that so that he wouldn’t break free himself, or the Cerebro Shell did something to his processor that kept him from staying up on the ball. I didn’t expect him to be so fast, though.” He chuckled nervously. “Kinda makes me glad that I never got on his bad side on Cybertron!”

Strongarm smiled a little at the idea of getting on Prowl’s bad side, but then his head dropped and she moved suddenly into a more defensive position as Prowl started to move again.

Bumblebee quickly pointed his stinger at the Cerebro Shell as its legs started to twitch in the air, looking for something to grab onto. He shot it multiple times, causing it to start smoking and die with an unhappy squealing sound and Prowl to shoot upright and look around sharply for the source of the noise, about ready to pounce on the two of them himself.

It took Prowl a moment before he relaxed, Strongarm and Bumblebee following suit. He looked around more slowly then spotted Bumblebee. “What is the meaning of this? We are not on Cybertron.”

“Nope.” Bumblebee shrugged. “It’s a bit of a long story; help us find a junkyard and we’ll talk about it on the way?”

Prowl inclined his head at Bumblebee’s request, raising an optic ridge. “Why a junkyard?”

“Well, we gotta get rid of this thing.” Bumblebee held out the smoking Cerebro Shell, which caused Prowl to take a step back in surprise.

“Where did you—“

“It was on your back, Prowl.” Bumblebee looked somewhat worried. “That’s what we have to talk about.”

**Space Break -- Oregon**

“I don’t see why we thought it was a good idea I should come up here with you,” Wheeljack grumbled. He ducked under a tree branch and considered letting it whack into Megatron’s Pretender form, but decided against it. “Can’t exactly fight too well in close spaces like this.”

“While that may be the case, I assume that you know how to fight in close spaces like this moderately well.”

Wheeljack looked back at Megatron as the branch settled back into place behind them. Megatron’s Pretender form was just the sort of thing you’d expect from a mech who’d led the Decepticons and had been a gladiator before that. He stood tall and muscular, short gray hair on top of his head. He wore a leather jacket and jeans, and the jacket was open to a dark purple shirt underneath.

Overall, he looked like the kind of human who could walk into a bar, start a bar fight, and walk out without a scratch on him.

Not that Wheeljack claimed to have any experience in that type of thing.

“I do, but the humans are picky about their trees. If they find out I chopped down some of these, they’re gonna get pretty annoyed – maybe even try to chop off _my_ head.” Wheeljack shrugged. “I mean, I get that they’re good for their environment and all, but when it gets into your vents and causes everything to clog up after a while, it can get to be a bit of a nuisance.”

“It would create an interesting arena to meet opponents in….”

Wheeljack shot Megatron an odd look. “What are you talkin’ about?”

“Sparkseer was a gladiator before the war began,” Megatron said casually. “Some of those instincts will still be there. In fact….”

Megatron paused at the edge of a clearing and pulled Wheeljack back by the collar of his jacket, causing the Wrecker to let out a yelp of surprise.

“I think he already is aware of the fact that we are here.”

Wheeljack shot Megatron an odd look, but the others red, purple-tinted eyes were scanning the clearing intently. The Wrecker frowned, then started to look around as well.

Somewhere in the distance, trees groaned, but there wasn’t a strong enough wind today to do more than ruffle branches.

Megatron grinned a wide grin, almost looking crazed. “He is coming, and he has chosen this place as our arena. I look forward to seeing just how difficult the Quintessans will make it to beat the sense back into him!”

“Uh, don’t you mean ‘rip off the Cerebro Shell they stuck to his back,’ Megs?” Wheeljack asked as the sound of trees snapping became much more prominent.

“That would be too cowardly, not to mention break any honor gladiators have between each other.” Megatron looked at Wheeljack with an almost dismissive expression. “You can remove it from him when he is subdued enough.”

“Wait, how do you expect me to—“

The trees parted as a tall, blue-armored Cybertronian mech with a gold spear stepped out of the forest and into the clearing.

Megatron stepped forward and seamlessly shifted up to his full Cybertronian form, grinning widely as his red optics flashed. “Sparkseer! It is good to see you are as prepared for battle as I am.” Megatron’s melee weapon – a large sword, hidden under his arm-mounted cannon – and he motioned for Sparkseer to come at him. “Come! Let me see how much you have improved since we last faced each other for a spar!”

Sparkseer didn’t move for a moment, then he lunged forward, bringing his spear’s point towards Megatron’s chest – and his spark.

Megatron parried, pushing the spear away as he dodged the barreling mech. Wheeljack was startled to notice that the two of were of equal height – the fact that most Cybertronians weren’t that tall usually really said something about the size of the two of them.

“Giants among giants,” Wheeljack muttered.

Megatron swung his sword at Sparkseer, but the other mech moved back and hit his spear against Megatron’s chosen weapon. Megatron’s sharp grin only seemed to get wider, and then he started moving faster.

Wheeljack found himself standing as a spectator to a fight that looked like it was supposed to be in an arena back on Cybertron before the war and not here on Earth out in the middle of nowhere.

Megatron and Sparkseer bounced back and forth with their attacks, attempting to spear and parrying it away without breaking a sweat, as the humans said. There was almost something graceful and powerful about their movements that made Wheeljack somewhat envious.

And then Megatron whacked Sparkseer’s head with the flat of his blade, momentarily stunning him. “Wheeljack!”

Wheeljack shook his head before realizing what exactly it was that Megatron was yelling his name _for._ “Oh! Right!” He ran out into the clearing, covered in gouges in the dirt from Megatron’s and Sparkseer’s movements as he moved up behind Sparkseer, shifting to his Cybertronian form and glaring daggers at the Cerebro Shell on Sparkseer’s back. “All right, you nasty little bug. Time to get squashed!”

He grabbed the bug with a bare servo and _pulled._

Sparkseer arched his back and screamed as Wheeljack yanked the shell off his back, causing him to stiffen at the sound and Megatron to step back in alarm at the sound of what would have been metal scraping on metal to human ears.

Wheeljack moved back a couple steps in surprise, looking between the Cerebro Shell and Sparkseer as he collapsed to his knees. “Whoa. Ratchet didn’t do that.”

“Because you didn’t stun him first,” Megatron replied. He motioned with his sword to the Cerebro Shell in Wheeljack’s hand. “Let us see to it that it is destroyed before it moves to take over one of us.”

“Right.” Wheeljack frowned at the device, the legs wiggling in the air like it was trying to grab onto something. He looked over at Megatron, then mimed throwing the device up in the air.

Megatron looked at Wheeljack for a moment, then grinned and retracted his sword as a low whine started to come from his cannon.

Wheeljack threw the Cerebro Shell in the air, and Megatron fired.

The resulting explosion of mechanical parts in a purple flash of laser fire caused Wheeljack to grin widely.

“You would’a been a good Wrecker,” Wheeljack said approvingly as Megatron lowered his cannon.

Megatron raised an optic ridge in a doubtful expression as Sparkseer groaned at his feet.

“No, seriously – a lot of former gladiators or people lookin’ for more thrills joined up with us. I mean – Shape-Change was a part of our group in the war, and when she got into a fight…” Wheeljack chuckled. “Well, we didn’t call her Arsenal for nothing.”

Sparkseer started to push himself up to his feet, running a hand over the back of his neck where the Cerebro Shell had been moments ago, grimacing. “…what just...where…”

Megatron offered him a hand, and Sparkseer looked up, blinking in surprise. He took the servo offered, and Megatron pulled the other up to his feet.

“Where is this place?” Sparkseer frowned. “I…I wasn’t in a forest before.”

“Welcome to Oregon,” Wheeljack replied dryly, causing Sparkseer to turn and look at him. “You’ve been running around for those five-faced jellyfish for a while.”

Sparkeer blinked, and his optics widened as Wheeljack’s words settled in. “…Quintessans? How? After what happened to—“

“It is apparent that they decided to try again, despite what happened on Cybertron and then on Aquatron,” Megatron replied grimly. “There are others who are in the same state that you were; we are presently rounding them up.” He grinned. “And I would like to see how well you’ve managed to improve since you last sparred in the ring. Fighting you here did not give me enough of an understanding on how it is you’ve improved.”

Sparkseer blinked a couple times, then nodded a little. “I should think that…a spar could be arranged – who else has been taken?”

“Jazz, Sunstreaker, you, Ratchet, Prowl, and, as far as we know, Starscream and Wildfire, too.” Wheeljack frowned. “At least, those are the ones we can find. Pretty sure there’re others too.”

“Wildfire…?” Sparkseer looked between the two of them, worried. “If she’s taken, then how do you expect to gain her back? I doubt that fighting a Cybertronian with her abilities will be—“

“We aren’t sending a Cybertronian after her.” Wheeljack grinned. “Not in the normal sense anyway.”

Sparkseer looked at Wheeljack, and understanding crossed his features. “She…she’s back? She’s finally returned from—“

“Indeed she has,” Megatron confirmed. “But she is not the same person that you will recall.”

“I do not doubt it.” Sparkseer looked at Megatron. “Where is it that you are located, then?”

“Come on back to base and we’ll get you settled in before Maria and Jazz get back,” Wheeljack replied with a grin. “First Aid’ll be glad to see you, let me tell you!”


	12. Chapter 12

“Are you sure this’ll work?” Sideswipe looked over at Sunstreaker. “This is _Starscream_ we’re talking about.”

“He’s also being mind controlled by a bunch of evil alien jellyfish and he’s not gonna be expecting it like he usually would,” Sunstreaker replied. “Everything’s duller when you’ve got that thing stuck to the back of your neck, and let me tell you, it’s _liberating_ to be able to think again.” He grinned. “So let’s go get the jump on him and give him the most embarrassing way to come back to his senses.”

Sideswipe blinked a couple times, then grinned. “All right. Let’s get Jet Judo out of retirement and catch ourselves a Screamer!”

The twins high-fived, then leapt off the side of the hill they’d been hiding behind just as Starscream flew past them in his jet alt mode.

Grabbing onto his wings wasn’t a problem for them – they’d been chasing down Seekers for years back on Cybertron during the war. Flipping them out of the sky with their weight had become something of a game – until the Seekers had gotten smarter and Optimus put a kibosh on their fun.

Although, now that Sideswipe was hanging onto Starscream’s wing for dear life as the mind-controlled Seeker flew through the air trying to shake them off, he remembered exactly _why_ he and Sunstreaker had decided to put the Jet Judo move into retirement.

“Come on!” Sunstreaker started pulling and pushing against Starscream’s right wing, causing the Seeker to shake a bit as he moved his weight, jostling the flyer. “We’ve gotta throw him off balance!”

“R-right!” Sideswipe started mimicking Sunstreaker, but his movements weren’t in time with Sunstreaker’s at all. Trying to be as random as possible, they changed up the speed of their movements, the times when they moved, and how they were moving.

It was only when Sideswipe pulled himself forward and swung a leg up on Starscream’s wing to sit on it that the Seeker started to dip towards the ground.

“Forward!” Sideswipe called with a grin, leaning towards Starscream’s front end. “Let’s crash into the hill!”

“You got it!” Sunstreaker shot his twin a grin and leaned forward before leaning towards the hill that was a little to Starscream’s left. Sideswipe leaned as well, grinning widely and letting out a whoop as Starscream, unable to correct his course, collided with the hill and sent the two of them tumbling off Starscream’s wings and nearly over the hill.

Sideswipe quickly came to a stop before Sunstreaker did, the yellow mech cursing about the grass and dirt stains that now covered his usually impeccable finish. The two of them quickly scrambled up and over the hill as Starscream transformed and pulled himself out of the hole he’d made when he crashed.

“All right, Screamer.” Sideswipe grinned. “Time to wake up!” He charged at the Seeker, who stepped aside to avoid him right before getting shot in the wing by Sunstreaker, causing him to stop and screech in pain to the sky.

Sideswipe winced as Sunstreaker aimed again and fired, getting another scream. “Do you really have to do that?!”

“I’ve got this on its lowest setting; he’s gonna be fine,” Sunstreaker replied dismissively. “You get the thing on the back of his neck; I’ll keep him distracted!”

“Right!” Sideswipe dove around Starscream as he tried to slash at the red mech. “All right, you stupid bug, time to come off!”

Starscream aimed one of his rocket launchers at Sunstreaker and fired, forcing Sunstreaker to dodge the attack while Sideswipe lunged for the Cerebro Shell on Starscream’s back and grabbed it tightly.

“Ready!” Sideswipe yelled.

“Do it!” Sunstreaker yelled back.

Sideswipe crushed the Cerebro Shell under his fingers and pulled back as Starscream screamed again, throwing his head back as he collapsed to the ground. The bug sparked in Sideswipe’s fingers, legs flailing in death throes. “Hey, Sunny!” He tossed the bug in the air.

Sunstreaker responded instantly by shooting the Cerebro Shell, causing it to explode. “Don’t call me that!”

Sideswipe just laughed at his twin’s reaction, not feeling threatened in the least. He looked down at Starscream as a smirk crossed his face. “You know, Predaking’s gonna be happy this guy’s still around. I can almost see the grin on his face.”

Sunstreaker snickered. “Oh, yeah. Come on, let’s drag this guy back to base so I can get my paint job fixed.”

“Sounds good to me!” Sideswipe grinned widely.

At least, that would have been their plan, except that something very huge, winged, and fanged landed in front of them with an ear-piercing screech.

**Space Break – New Mexico**

Maria watched the road as Jazz kept driving, eyes narrowed slightly at the desert-like landscape and the fact that the road was almost entirely deserted. Probably the fact that there was an unusual heat wave was keeping everyone indoors momentarily.

“I don’t like this,” Maria announced. “Wildfire hasn’t exhibited her abilities on a scale like this before.”

“Are you sure ‘bout that?” Jazz responded. “You weren’t there for some of her fights back on Cybertron. I’m pretty sure that there were a few times where she had to up her game, ya know?”

“I remember her saying that she rarely used them,” Maria replied. “They were more of a last resort than they were for me – I don’t see how she would be forced to use them all that often.”

“Well, sometimes Wildfire had ta face some pretty big mechs – in case ya didn’t notice, she is kinda on the short side fer a Cybertronian, even if she’s got more of a mech’s build. That puts her at a bit of a disadvantage sometimes. So she just used what she had a bit more than she liked, that’s all it means. So she might have a bit more up her sleeve than ya think!”

Maria frowned at that. “We’ll have to see. How warm is it?”

“I think we’re gettin’ pretty close to the middle of things. You sure you’ll be able to handle the heat out here?”

“Positive.”

Jazz made a noise that sounded like a verbal shrug. “Okay then. Don’t blame me if you end up meltin’ at any point of this.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“…man, you’ve gotten to be a real stick-in-the-mud since you got back. Any reason why yer actin’ so stiff?”

“Let’s just focus on what needs to be done and take care of that before things have a chance to get any worse,” Maria replied shortly.

“All right, if ya—“

A loud beeping noise went off on Jazz’s dash, forcing him to stop short. “This is as far as I’m gonna be able ta go. I can definitely see Wildfire from here, though!”

Maria looked out the window and saw a red and orange sports car sitting about a half mile down the road from them. Her eyes narrowed slightly, and she unbuckled herself before she stepped out of Jazz’s alt mode.

The heat slammed into her in a way that felt familiar. Eerily so.

“Groudon’s heat wave,” Maria muttered under her breath. She raised her voice. “Jazz, I’m going on alone. I doubt you’d be able to handle this much heat as it is. Wait at a safe distance for the temperature to drop back to where it’s supposed to be; you’ll know when.”

Jazz hesitated for a moment, but then the red and orange, flame-painted sports car started to move forward and he pulled back a little. “All righ’, have it your way. But call me in if ya need me, ya got it?”

“I got it.” Maria didn’t take her eyes off the vehicle in front of her as Jazz quickly turned and drove off down the road, getting away from the heat as quickly as he could as the road started to bubble under Maria’s feet. She jumped up and landed on her hoverboard as the asphalt started to melt off the road and into the desert sand.

“Wildfire.” Maria folded her arms across her chest, eyeing the Cybertronian in front of her. “Come out and face me, fire user to fire user. Let us settle this before I am forced to tear you apart and find the Cerebro Shell myself.”

The sports car in front of her did nothing – not at first. Then it transformed, shifting upwards into a humanoid form with a grim, but blank expression on the figure’s face.

“You’re coming with me,” Wildfire said flatly.

“I don’t think so.” Maria shifted to her armor and summoned her Buster while a sharp, curved blade slid out from a hidden compartment in her left arm. “It is _you_ who will be coming with _me.”_

Wildfire hit me with a wall of flames without warning, the wall spreading across the road and slamming into me with enough force to knock a normal human my size over and burn them to a crisp if the heat hadn’t done that already.

“Flash Fire.”

The fire converged on Maria, sucked into her armored form suddenly and without so much as hinting at harming her. The temperature wavered slightly as Maria started to charge up her Buster, shifting her stance on the hoverboard ever so slightly so that she could take off at a moment’s notice.

Wildfire activated her built-in blasters and charged at Maria, firing bright blue bolts of energy at the far-smaller Reploid.

“Here we go,” Maria muttered, swinging around and over the desert as Wildfire turned, following the Reploid and continuing to fire as Maria brought up her Buster. She aimed at a spot where Wildfire would be and fired a Stun shot, scoring a hit in Wildfire’s left shoulder as she passed that point.

Wildfire’s left arm fell limp against her side; she hardly glanced at it as the electricity from Maria’s attack sparked around her joints. She simply kept firing with the other blaster, seemingly trying to keep Maria at bay.

Maria fired another Stun Shot, this time taking out one of Wildfire’s legs and forcing her to fall to her knees. She attempted to keep moving towards Maria, still aiming her Buster as Maria flew around Wildfire and towards the black and purple Cerebro Shell that was pinned to her back and stuck out against Wildfire’s armor.

Maria leveled her Buster at the bug, narrowed her eyes, and fired.

The bug took the attack and let out a loud screech as smoke and sparks came off it in showers. Maria shot it again, and the second time was when it finally let go, collapsing onto the desert sand where its innards started to melt from the heat Wildfire had been releasing.

Wildfire herself, on the other hand, collapsed completely into the sand, unmoving as the temperature of the desert around them started to drop quickly. Maria almost felt a chill from the sudden drop in temperature, but ignored it as the road stopped bubbling like hot soup. She flew down to Wildfire’s face instead, watching warily as the sand stopped turning into glass underneath the Cybertronian.

Maria retracted the blade on her left arm that she hadn’t needed to use, wondering if this was too easy and there was something else that was going to happen, or if the Quintessans had just never expected someone like her to step in and do something about their mind controlled soldiers.

Wildfire groaned, then lifted her head and looked around as she started to push herself to her feet. “What the scrap…?” Her gaze moved when Maria shifted slightly on her hoverboard. She blinked, and her optics widened when Wildfire saw the little Reploid in front of her.

Wildfire quickly scrambled up into a crouch, staring at Maria with an incredulous expression as the other deactivated her Buster and looked back at her with a guarded expression. “You…” Wildfire frowned. “You left us and didn’t think to tell anyone where you were going? What the Pit, Maria? You’d think that you’d be much better at letting us know where you were going to disappear off to, you little—“

“Hello to you, too,” Maria replied dryly. “And you’re the pot calling the kettle black; did you tell anyone you were going to be investigating the Quintessans before you went and got yourself caught with a Cerebro Shell?”

“That does not have remotely anything to do with what happened to you,” Wildfire hissed in reply. “Do you really think I’m going to let you get away with getting up and disappearing without us knowing where you were or whether or not we’d be able to find you? I’ve tried calling you and all I got was static!”

“Considering where I was and the state I was in for most of the time, I’m not surprised,” Maria replied.

Wildfire gave Maria an odd look, and seemed to notice something on the Reploid’s face. Her optics widened, and she quickly scooped Maria into her hands, forcing the hoverboard to reattach to Maria’s back. “What have you been doing. Tell me.”

“Not now.”

“Whaddaya mean, not now?” Wildfire frowned at the Reploid. “You’ve been AWOL for –“

“And so have you. The Quintessans have Soundwave and Shape-Change and we need to get back to the base. Now.” Maria paused. “Jazz is waiting just outside the area that we’re in. We’ll meet up with him, then head back north.”

“And you’re riding with me and explaining what the scrap you’ve been up to,” Wildfire said in a serious tone as she started to walk along the desert floor next to the road. She eyed the melted mess of asphalt with a guarded expression before looking back at Maria. “Especially since you look like you’ve just been through a war and at your age that is not a good thing.”

“I was eighteen when I was taken and this dimension’s timeline says I’m now 38; I’m fine,” Maria replied patiently. There was a twinge of something else to her voice however – annoyance, perhaps?

“No, you’re not. I know fine. I’ve seen other people be fine. I’m _not_ fine, and neither are you.” Wildfire held her hands closer to her face and looked at Maria in disapproval. “And we’re going to talk about what made you not fine on the way back to the base, or so help me Primus I’m going to get a Cerebro Shell, shrink it down, and stick it to the back of your neck in order to get you to talk to me, much less get you to tell me the truth.”

Maria held back a flinch. Barely. “That won’t work. I have defenses against those kinds of devices now.”

“I know. That’s why I – wait. _Now?”_ Wildfire eyed Maria with a scrutinizing expression, optic ridges furrowing. “You—“

“Later,” Maria said, pointedly.

“No.” Wildfire glared at the Reploid, then stepped onto the road and transformed down into her sports car mode, placing Maria rather resolutely in the front passenger’s seat and causing a nearby Jazz to yelp in surprise. “You are telling me _exactly_ what happened to you and you are not setting foot outside until you do!”

“Wildfire?” Jazz asked incredulously. “Did Maria manage ta—“

“Yes she did,” Wildfire replied as a seatbelt flew over Maria before she could reach for the door handle. “Where’s the base she mentioned?”

“I’ll lead the way. You handle talkin’ ta her. I think the only one of us who’s really managed ta have a heart-ta-heart is Megatron, an’ he’s not givin’ any details.”

“Of course it’d be him,” Wildfire muttered. “Lead the way, Jazz.”

Jazz took off down the not-melting road, and Wildfire followed after him as Maria folded her arms across her chest in Wildfire’s alt mode and scowled.

“Spill,” Wildfire ordered. “Now. What was that about only _now_ having what you needed in order to break a Cerebro Shell put on yourself?”

Maria turned her head to look out the window, but the seat belt only tightened its grip on her as a holoform appeared in the driver’s seat – a woman, with a shock of bright red hair.

“Maria,” the holoform said. “What. Happened.”

Maria glanced over at the holoform for a moment, then looked back out the window. When the holoform only kept staring and the silence persisted, she sighed irritably. “I got the attention of a bunch of aliens who decided to use me to make a new dimension for themselves, all right? By the time I was myself again and able to help the rebellion reverse what the Dark Arms had done, it was nearly too late for that portion of the multiverse and the people inside it.”

“What aliens?”

“Dark Arms. They’re…some corrupted version of the Black Arms from that _Shadow the Hedgehog_ game.”

Wildfire was about to respond to that, but she paused. Maria had hesitated. Something about her façade looked cracked. She decided to wait and see where this would end up going.

“Matthew was there,” Maria said. “He’s the one who helped me come to my senses and make any MindTech the Dark Arms tried to attach to me unusable. But then they caught me again and tried to take me apart, see what they could do to reverse that. It was…painful.”

She shifted out of her armor and back to her normal outfit; Wildfire relaxed the seatbelt’s hold a little.

“Matthew was there,” Wildfire repeated, after a moment.

“Multiple worlds were forcibly merged together in order to create the one the Dark Arms wanted,” Maria replied. “The Cybertronian-DC crossover we know about was one of them. Matthew made himself an important part of the rebellion, which…makes me glad, because it meant he couldn’t go out often and possibly end up with himself getting caught.”

“…I see. Anyone else we know?”

“The Marvel dimension was there. So was a Pokémon dimension, but it wasn’t ours. It was one that Khrista was apparently connected to. I’ll have to find her and talk to her about that.”

“I haven’t seen her since that summer. Or Matthew.”

Maria’s brow furrowed. “…Khrista must still be on Neo-Mobius, then. If she’s still alive. I’ll have to find her after this problem with the Quintessans is handled.”

“Yeah, sure. You do that. But don’t change the subject now.”

“Why? I’ve said—“

“I’m worried about you.”

Maria blinked at that statement, then looked over at Wildfire’s holoform with a frown. “What?”

“You are not the Maria who left this dimension,” Wildfire said. “Tell me what happened. Tell me what you went through. You need to let it out.”

“What do you know about that?” Maria snapped in reply. “What do you know about what I need to do?”

“Do you really think I’d be talking to you right now if I didn’t come to the conclusion that some things need to be said?” Wildfire replied. “You’ve locked some bit of you away, and that worries me. You’re going to need to let it out eventually.”

“I’m fine.” The break in Maria’s voice claimed otherwise. “I’m not wounded, I’m not dead—“

“You’re acting like you may as well be.”

Wildfire’s statement caused Maria to pause.

“I haven’t seen you this serious at all over the course of time that I’ve been in your mind, Maria. Or seen you outside of it. Something in you has changed, and I’m not sure if I like it.” Wildfire paused. “You don’t have to switch back to who you were. Not if you don’t feel like it. But keep that in mind.”

The inside of Wildfire’s alt mode fell silent as Wildfire finished speaking and focused back on Jazz as they continued driving north.

Maria returned her gaze to the landscape passing by outside. She said nothing, but her expression had changed from the serious, grim expression to…something else.


	13. Chapter 13

When Maria, Wildfire, and Jazz came back to the base in the Rockies, the Cybertronians and two humans inside were waiting for them.

“Sunstreaker and Sideswipe aren’t back yet?” Jazz transformed out of his alt mode as Maria stepped out of Wildfire’s.

Lennox shook his head. “Haven’t seen so much as a flash from their shiny paint jobs. I wonder if sending them after Starscream was a good idea.”

Wildfire snorted, then shifted to her Cybetronian form. “Those two have been itching for a chance to test their Jet Judo on him after the last time they tried it. They’ll be fine; trust me on that one.”

Lennox took a step back in surprise and looked like he was about ready to raise his weapon and shoot, but then he realized he didn’t _have_ a weapon in his hands at that particular moment.

“Glad to see you back, at least.” First Aid approached Wildfire in her Cybertronian form, hands on her hips. “I don’t remember you ever getting the Pretender transformation sequence added. Did you?”

Wildfire blinked at that, then shook her head. “Never saw too much of a point in it. Why?”

“It’s starting to turn into a more strategic move from the rest of us,” First Aid replied. “Shape-Change doesn’t have it yet. If she attempts to shift into any one of us and hides her Cerebro Shell somehow, then she’ll be able to infiltrate and spy on us for the Quintessans. If we stay in Pretender form almost all the time, then Shape-Change will be found out pretty quickly.”

Wildfire considered that, then frowned. “That could work, but I’d rather not go through with it. The humans already have one human who can use fire; I don’t think they’d like to know that there’s another one running around.”

“Technically, my state is in limbo on account of the fact that I haven’t been seen in twenty years,” Maria replied. “I doubt that most of the human population is aware of the fact that I ever existed, much less had the ability to summon flames and harm my opponents with them. The only ones who suddenly become aware and wouldn’t want more than one of me is the US Government, considering that I have connections back to Cybertron and allies from that planet who might be more than willing to back me up.” She paused, tilting her head slightly at Lennox and Epps. “Does that sound correct?”

“Just about,” Lennox replied.

“Considerin’ that most of them don’t really like Joshua very much, yeah.” Epps nodded. “Little people like you who’re older than you look and can blast the boots off a grown man really make the big wigs nervous.”

Maria looked up at Wildfire and First Aid and motioned towards the two men, raising an eyebrow. “Galloway, from what I have seen of him, is an annoying figure of a man who obviously does not know what he is getting into when it comes to Cybertronians and what they are capable of, much less World Jumpers and what Joshua and I are capable of. I would like to see how he would react to finding out that I’m not the only one who is capable of running around and throwing fireballs at opponents, and it would make it easier for you to interact with humans without intimidating them as soon as you start talking.”

Wildfire blinked a couple times at Maria’s comment as First Aid frowned.

“Maria, I don’t think—“

“Well, seeing it through your eyes might make things a little more interesting around here,” Wildfire remarked. “All right; let’s do this.”

“We won’t get started until the others return,” Ratchet said, frowning. “Sparkseer is up in Oregon and there are others as far as the East Coast. It will take days for Sunstreaker and Sideswipe to return with that former Decepticon in tow.”

Wildfire frowned at that, then paused. “What if Predaking finds them first? Starscream is supposed to be—“

“We shall have to wait and see when we hear from them again,” Ratchet replied.

“We’ve taken down our communications for the moment,” Coil explained, stepping out of the other side of the base in his Pretender form. “Soundwave was taken too; we don’t want them listening in and getting any ideas from us.”

Wildfire nodded. “Smart move. Leaves us in the dark for the most part, but at least that means they are going to be in the dark about us.”

There came the sound of engines coming from the base’s entrance, and the others turned to look back just as Megatron, Wheeljack, and a bright blue semi cab drove through the entrance.

Megatron and Wheeljack shifted down to their Pretender forms immediately. The semi, however, shifted up into a tall Cybertronian form, a large, golden spear held in one hand.

Wildfire turned and looked at him and Maria looked up at him with her usual guarded expression – well, usual _now._ “Sparkseer. It’s good to see you’re all right.”

Sparkseer looked down at Wildfire, and his expression softened from a guarded one to something far kinder. “And the same to you, Wildfire. I take it Maria had a hand in your rescue?”

“I did,” Maria called up. “Tracking her down was the easy part; getting the shell off was slightly harder. What made it easier than I’d expected was the fact that Wildfire seemed to have forgotten that I could _absorb_ fire, rather than be harmed by it.”

“More like the Quints didn’t know about it,” Wildfire commented. “You really think that I wouldn’t have hit you with my blasters first thing otherwise?”

“Good point. At least they don’t know the lengths to which my powers can go quite yet.” Maria nodded.

Sparkseer knelt down to have a closer look at Maria, his optics flickering with something that made them appear brighter. “You have seen much more than a normal mortal your size and age would have ever experienced. I am glad to see that you have come back to us mostly unscathed, but still changed. More than can be said for Liz, Matthew, or Khrista, whose absences have been felt.”

Maria frowned. “Liz didn’t come back after she went to the Fullmetal Alchemist dimension? That is troublesome. I will have to see if I can find her later, after the Quintessans have been taken care of.” She paused. “You haven’t sensed Matthew’s return, either? He was with me.”

“He was?” Sparkseer blinked. “And yet he did not return with you?”

“We were in the same area, but we weren’t standing next to each other either in the other dimension or here when I returned.” Maria frowned. “I had thought that he would have found himself appearing in some other part of the world when he came back.”

“If he was not with you when you returned, then it is likely that he is still there.”

Maria stared at Sparkseer, then shook her head slowly. “Not in exactly the same place. The dimension we were in was reset because of events that were taking place; I will have to look into the universes that were involved in order to be able to find him….” She looked away, her voice trailing off as she gained a worried expression at her own words. She shook her head, going back to her more serious expression a moment later. “But finding Matthew will have to wait. We have other problems to worry about.”

“And Khrista?” First Aid pressed.

“Khrista is most likely on Neo-Mobius; she went there at the start of the summer and she didn’t come back on her own at any point during those three months, so I can only assume that she is still there,” Maria replied without missing a beat. “Besides, she can handle herself well enough and whatever that particular dimension might throw at her; we have other things to worry about here.” She looked over at Sparkseer and raised an eyebrow. “Like finding Shape-Change and Soundwave before the Quintessans use them to cause a disruption on Cybertron, perhaps. Or a disruption here on Earth, so that they can invade it and do as the please with the rest of us.”

Coil frowned. “They’ve already tried for Cybertron twice; I don’ think they’re going to try a third time at this point, but it would be a good idea to—“

“Wait.” Wildfire looked down at Bumblebee. “You’re telling me that the Quintessans tried _again_ after we kicked them out the first time?”

“Yeah?” Coil blinked, then smacked himself in the forehead. “Oh, right! You guys weren’t there when that happened! Although, neither was I, so I can’t really say I know the details.”

“What happened?” Sparkseer asked with a frown.

“After we fled from Cybertron, with Megatron in tow, we stopped at the planet Aquatron for a time,” Ratchet explained. “We ran into the Quintessans there, as they had enslaved that planet, and they intended to use us to take over Cybertron a second time. Thankfully, we were able to stop them before they went too far, but they came very close to destroying us all.”

Sparkseer’s frown deepened. “That is worrysome. Let us hope they do not succeed in their plans here.”

“And in order to prevent that, we had better make sure that the two of you are still in working order.” Ratchet looked over at First Aid. “I know we were intending to wait until Prowl and Starscream were here as well, but I find it best that we take care of this now so that it won’t take as much time.”

First Aid nodded. “All right. Let’s get you two your Pretender forms and see what we can do about hunting down Soundwave and Shape-Change before it’s too late.”

**Spacial Break**

Magnus saw the ships before they saw him, which was a good thing.

Unfortunately, they were hidden so far outside of Earth’s orbit that the humans’ sensors wouldn’t be able to pick them up, so that was a bad thing.

On top of that, Magnus suspected that they were able to send strong enough signals down to their agents on the planet below that they didn’t even _need_ to be too close to the planet, which was only even more worrysome.

Not to mention the fact that he was going to have to sneak past them if he was going to be able to get down to Earth and meet up with those who were already on the planet’s surface.

“Well that’s a problem.” A skinny, blue femme with purple highlights leaned over to have a look at what was on Magnus’ monitor. “Looks like they have decided to come back.”

“Yes,” Magnus agreed. “However, with this blockade they’ve set up around the planet, we will be unable to go in and give them reinforcements planet-side.” He paused. “Which means we will have to give them reinforcements from out here.”

Magnus maneuvered the ship into an orbit around Mars. “Call the others to the bridge. We have to debrief them on the situation and consider our next move.”

“You got it.”


	14. Chapter 14

“Man, I didn’t think we were really that big compared to you guys.” Wildfire looked up at Ratchet as he put his tools aside. She looked exactly like her chosen holoform did, but now she was clearly much more solid. “This is gonna be interesting.”

Maria nodded in agreement. Then she paused and tilted her head slightly. “Do you hear that?”

Wildfire looked over at the Reploid and frowned at the comment. “Hear what? I don’t—“ She paused when the sound Maria had heard started to tickle her own ears: engines. “Who’s coming?”

“My guess is Bumblebee, Strongarm, and Prowl,” Maria replied. “None of that sounds like a jet engine of any kind.”

Sure enough, a police car drove into the base, followed shortly by Bumblebee’s Urbana form and Stronarm’s blue-and-white SUV form. The three promptly transformed, and Prowl looked around as Ratchet and First Aid looked over from their medical station.

“…this is not what I was expecting for a base,” Prowl said.

“Most of it’s human sized – we use our Pretender forms more often than not.” Bumblebee motioned to the human-sized corridor that went from the room they were in to the next room over. “So unless you don’t have a Pretender form yet, First Aid and Ratchet can make sure that you get one.”

Prowl inclined his head slightly at that. “I do not have a Pretender form; most of my time after the war was spent on Cybertron, not among humans. If I am going to be here and attempting to remain hidden from the Quintessans for the short, foreseeable future, I will be requiring one.”

“Then get over here,” Ratchet grumbled, motioning for Prowl to step over to the berths that were set up and waiting. “We don’t have much time; they’re going to notice we’re missing and who’s been taking us back and will react accordingly, I believe.”

Prowl nodded. “They have been losing assets; they will react accordingly and lash out before they lose any more. We must move quickly if we are going to be able to do anything concerning that.”

“That’s one way to put it,” Wildfire commented. Prowl looked down at her with an odd expression, and she gave him a short wave. “Hey, Prowl. Glad to see you’re awake this time around.”

Prowl blinked. “Wildfire. I see you have been equipped with a Pretender form as well?”

“Yup.” Wildfire dropped a hand on Maria’s shoulder. “Had a little help getting my focus back.”

Prowl followed the motion of Wildfire’s hand and froze as Maria looked up at him with an expression that could be described as “done with everything.” He blinked. “Maria. I had not expected that you would return.”

“I had expected that I would,” Maria replied. “It simply took more time than I had been expecting it to.”

“You were not expecting the difference in time passing between this dimension and the one you were assisting?” Prowl frowned. “Wouldn’t your internal clock informed you of the time passing?”

“The time in the other dimension was erratic at best. I couldn’t trust what the clocks there were telling me, and the warping of space around me caused me not to trust my own clock, either.” Maria put her hands behind her back. “It’s a relief to know that I can trust it again and that time is actually moving forward instead of remaining still until the struggle between it and space causes an entire portion of the multiverse to collapse.”

The Cybertronians present stared at Maria with blank expressions.

“You actually faced that problem,” Wildfire said flatly, staring at Maria.

“Yes.” Maria looked at her and raised an eyebrow. “I was going to have to face something dangerous and of that magnitude at some point in my career as a World Jumper. I don’t see why you’re all shocked about it.”

“Kid, I was expecting that problem with Dialga and Palkia back when you were sixteen,” Wildfire replied flatly, causing a glimmer of confusion to appear in Prowl’s optics for a moment. “What caused it this time?”

“The same monsters that murdered my parents. You don’t need to worry; they won’t be doing anything of that sort anytime soon.”

The frank, matter-of-fact way Maria said that caused the others to stare at her with something that bordered on alarm.

Wildfire stepped around in front of Maria and grabbed her shoulders. “You. Me. Private quarters. Now.”

She steered Maria through into the other half of the base, then through the main meeting area and into a section of the base that was deeper into the mountain.

Wildfire pulled Maria into a small chamber and closed the door behind them before turning and looking at the Reploid with her arms folded across her chest. “You can’t be taking this that easily.”

Maria blinked, expression remaining unchanging.

“Maria. What happened twenty years ago.” Wildfire remained standing in front of the door. “You’re not getting out of here until you tell me, in detail, where you’ve been and what’s happened to you.”

Maria stared Wildfire down with the same, constant serious stare she’d had ever since she had set foot back in her home dimension. When Wildfire didn’t move from her position, glaring back at the Reploid seriously, Maria inclined her head slightly.

“You want to know the truth of the matter?” Maria raised her hands up to either side of her, palms up. “Mirage Break.”

The entire room shifted suddenly, taking away Wildfire’s blank desk and bed – both Pretender sized – and replacing them with Maria’s home street, with two mottled, black-red-skinned aliens holding guns to the heads of a man with brown hair and blue eyes, and a woman with black hair and green eyes.

Maria’s parents.

The scene started to move in a blur – Morgen and Katie, screaming at Maria to run before being vaporized into ash by shots from the aliens; Maria rushing them, blacking out…

And then everything took a turn for the worse.

Wildfire watched with a hard expression at first, but that stone-cold façade slowly dropped as the images progressed – Maria, kneeling at the feet of these creatures, a small, black box of technology attached to the back of her neck. Maria chasing down allies in the streets and trapping them in the same state that _she_ was in, going across worlds and hunting down heroes, villains, and allies without care or so much as a change in expression.

And then the scene changed.

Maria had broken into a bunker with four figures standing inside. Wildfire recognized them, but her expression paled when she saw the young man standing with them, blue eyes wide with alarm.

 _“Steven Rogers: Codename, Captain America. Vergil Hawkins: Codename, Static. Richie Foley: Codename, Gear. Matthew Carlsdale: Codename, Aura Seeker,”_ Maria recited in a monotone. _“Captain America and Static: valuable. Gear and Aura Seeker: not required.”_

 _“Richie, go!”_ yelled the dark-skinned boy wearing purple, black, and yellow. _“We’ll keep them off your backs!”_

Gear hesitated, but then Matthew grabbed him and the two of them took off down a corridor behind them. Maria bolted after them as dark figures similar to the ones that had killed her parents surged towards Captain America and Static.

Maria caught up to Gear and Matthew in almost no time, the young man who was also her older brother tripping against something and pulling down Gear with him, right before Maria was on top of them, pointing her Buster down at them both.

Then the Maria in the Mirage Break froze.

_“Error. Error. Command counteracts programming. Error. Error.”_

The monotone voice Maria had caused Wildfire to flinch, but her words caused Matthew and Gear to exchange looks of surprise.

_“Invasive programming detected. Suppressing of personality, free will, and moral code detected. Attempted rewriting of moral code detected. Rebuilding defenses. Rebooting. Rebooting.”_

The mirage’s eyes flickered and came back into focus as the black box on the back of Maria’s neck started smoking, then fell off on its own, clattering to the floor.

The mirage picked up pace again, showing the boys fleeing – Matthew saying something to Maria for a moment – before she went back the way she came and attacked the Dark Arms.

The next thing Wildfire saw was that Maria was strapped down to a lab table, screaming as the black-and-red aliens cut into her legs, severing important Energon lines as they made comments about making sure she couldn’t run.

The mirage went black, then turned to frost, then cleared again; Wildfire caught a glimpse of Captain America surrounded by flames, a glazed expression in his eyes shifting to one that was more alert; of a small group of heroes, before Maria woke up in a mechanic’s shop with Ratchet standing over her.

And as for everything that followed…the only word Wildfire could use to describe it was…

“You were in a war.” Wildfire blinked as the mirage ended in a white flash and disappeared. “You were in a _war_. No wonder you’ve come back so changed.”

Maria said nothing as she lowered her hands. The guarded look on her face had remained unchanged through the course of the mirages she’d hit the room with. Wildfire thought – for a moment – that there was a flicker of something in Maria’s eyes, but it was gone a moment later, buried under the hard grimness that Maria had been projecting.

“Kid, you’re holding yourself back, and it isn’t healthy,” Wildfire said with a frown.

“It’s needed,” Maria replied. “If I allow myself to become emotionally compromised now, that will leave us at a disadvantage against the Quintessans. I cannot allow myself to let everything out. Not now.”

“No, but you’re hurting yourself in the process of doing that,” Wildfire responded. “Maria. It’s going to force its way out at some point, and its going to be at a time when you’re not going to want it. You have to let it out _now,_ before the Quintessans attack so that you’ll be better off.”

“What do you know of these things?” Maria responded. “You’re not a psychiatrist.”

“No, but I was in your head for eleven years. I know how you think and how you handle a situation, and honestly? This isn’t you, and it isn’t good for you.” Wildfire shook her head. “You’re going to break down at some point, Maria. And it’s not going to be at a time where you’re going to want it to.”

Maria said nothing in response, her expression remaining stoic.

Wildfire sighed, then opened the door and stepped aside. “When it finally happens, you know there are people here who would be willing to talk you through it.”

Maria moved towards the door, but then she stopped next to Wildfire. Her expression shifted slightly, appearing more hesitant than Maria had been since her return.

“I know. But I can’t afford to let myself fall. Not right now. We have other things to worry about.”

And with that, Maria walked out of the room without another word.

Wildfire watched Maria go with a guarded expression of her own, and as soon as Maria was gone she sighed and put a hand to her forehead.

“That kid is too stubborn for her own good,” Wildfire muttered. “And that is going to come back and bite her in the aft if she doesn’t do something about it.” She sighed again, then followed Maria out of the room and back to the main chamber of the base.

**Spacial Break**

To say that the Quintessans were annoyed at having their pawns taken so quickly and without warning was an understatement.

To find that the Cybertronians were aware of them and had not only cut off all communications but had also deployed a being the size of a Mini-Con that was more than capable of disabling Cerebro Shells made them even more terrifying to run into.

Not that Shape-Change had much of a choice in the matter.

The shifter sat in the back of her cell, watching the multi-faced creatures circle about in the lab, looking over notes and attempting to construct a bug-shaped device. The scene was starting to become an old, boring one, and Shape-Change had lost almost all fear of what it was they were doing.

After all, all it took was a slight shift in how she was built and how her processor ran things and the Cerebro Shell stopped working properly, giving her a crack to break free through.

Obviously, the Quintessans hadn’t had a chance to deal with someone of her kind before, and they were going to have a difficult time working with her if they wanted to use everything that she was for whatever plan they had in mind.

She listened to their almost panicked hissings, optics slightly narrowed. The Quintessan language wasn’t one that Cybertronians were required to learn, but after a time some of the older generations still knew and remembered.

Shape-Change had picked up some from Soundwave. And she knew that he was being kept somewhere just as she was, but for different reasons.

And she could imagine that all of those reasons had the same figure standing at the head of them.

_It’s good to hear you’re back, Flare-Up. Let’s see how long the Quintessans can hold out until you manage to find them and tear this place apart._


	15. Chapter 15

Three days after Wildfire and Sparkseer had been rescued and two after Prowl, a loud crashing sound came from somewhere outside the base.

Maria looked up from the laptop she’d borrowed from Collin in order to catch up on what had happened on Earth for the last twenty years as the Cybertronian Pretenders in the room with her stiffened out of surprise and alarm.

The loud screeching voice that followed was heard clear as day, despite the fact that it was muffled by being outside the base. _“No! You cannot make me go in there! I won’t!”_

Maria set the laptop aside with a frown and stood up off the couch. “Sounds like the twins finally came back with Starscream.”

Wildfire looked over from where she was frowning up at the large monitor that had a map of the US. “About time. I was wondering if they’d have to chase him all over the states and need to call Coil in for backup.”

“Their pride with their Jet Judo was on the line; I doubt they would have wanted to call any of us in,” Bumblebee replied. He started towards the entryway that led into the other part of the base. Maria followed after him. “Especially since we specifically asked them and told them they could use their technique.”

Maria and Bumblebee stepped into the Cybertronian-sized chamber just as Sunstreaker and Sideswipe dragged the flier into the room by his stiletto-heeled feet. The noise that Starscream’s claws made against the floor as he tried to go in the other direction were nearly unbearable.

“Found him!” Sideswipe said cheerily. “Took us a bit to get him out here, though – he didn’t want to be anywhere near us for some reason.”

“Let me go!” Starscream screeched.

Sideswipe looked back with a deadpan expression. “Not on your Spark, Seeker.”

“I’m guessing it took you so long to get back because you were dragging him the whole way?” Bumblebee motioned to how Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were dragging the flier.

“Pretty much.” Sideswipe shrugged.

Sunstreaker dropped the foot he had been holding onto. “And he covered me in terrible scratches the whole way back. I’m going to have to redo my paint.” He stomped off, muttering to himself as Starscream started trying to yank his other foot out of Sideswipe’s grip.

A flash of something large and made of steel whipped across Maria’s line of vision.

_CLANG!_

Starscream stopped struggling as the wrench bounced off his helm and back into Ratchet’s hand as the medic came over. “That should stun him long enough to let me have a look at him. Bring him over here. Now.”

Sideswipe didn’t need to be told twice. He quickly moved after Ratchet and over to the berths, pulling Starscream up and putting his momentarily-stunned form on top of the metal slab before retreating a short distance to give the medic room to work.

Maria watched with an impassive expression.

Bumblebee winced. “Do you really need to be so hard on the guy?”

Ratchet turned to look back at the Pretender below him and frowned disapprovingly. “Do you really think we have _time_ to be _nice?_ ”

“Well—“

“Because if I don’t do this now, if they bring out Shape-Change and have her attempt to infiltrate us this could all end very badly very quickly!” Ratchet turned back to his work. “Now, if you’ll excuse me I have some things that I should be taking care of. Shoo.”

Bumblebee started to move back into the other part of the base quickly, but Sideswipe grabbed the back of his jacket before he could get far. “Hey! Sides—“

“Something was following us on our way back here.”

Bumblebee stopped struggling and turned sharply to look up at the red Autobot. “What?” He frowned, gaining a serious expression. “Did you—“

“I think it was one of those Maximal or Predacon things.” Sideswipe shrugged, letting Bumblebee go. “Either they wanted to know where we were or they wanted Starscream back because of all the stuff he did and how Predaking’s been using him as a chew toy. Dunno what they’re gonna do now that we have him, though.”

Maria frowned a little at that, tapping her chin in thought. “They might be tracking the Quintessans’ movements as well. It might be a good idea to use this to our advantage and get into contact with them in order to see what can be done about halting their plans.”

“Maybe,” Bumblebee said. “But they like to keep to themselves. Jolt and Joshua are the only ones who really see them on a regular basis, and that’s only because they were the ones who woke most of them up – both at the end of the war and after it. If we were going to get into contact with them for the purpose of an alliance, I don’t know if they’d be willing to accept the proposal from us. They would have to hear it from Joshua instead.”

“They really consider those two that much of an ally?” Maria blinked. “Hm.”

“Well, they were the ones who helped to get their society back on track,” Sideswipe offered. “I mean, none of us have really helped with that.”

“Considering you’ve been busy rebuilding Cybertron from the war that you got yourselves into, that’s understandable. But Joshua and Jolt have been assisting in that as well, so what else could they have done besides reviving the Maximals and Predacons that caused them to be considered allies?” Maria frowned. “Because I doubt that some of their leaders would be doing this without thinking there was something here they could take advantage of.”

“Since when does anything _not_ end up being for someone’s advantage?” Sideswipe asked dryly.

“…good point.” Maria rolled her eyes.

“So, I guess at this point we’ll just have to keep an eye on Starscream until the Maximal or Predacon shows themselves,” Bumblebee said, nodding. “I don’t think that’ll be too much of a problem, since Megatron and Ratchet are both here in the same base.”

“Are you implying something?” Ratchet looked back at them with a deadpan, annoyed expression.

“N-no, we’re not!” Bumblebee replied quickly – maybe even a little _too_ quickly.

“Better quit while you’re ahead,” Maria muttered. She looked up at Sideswipe, then walked back into the main area of the base without another word, leaving the two mechs to fend for themselves against Ratchet’s possible, impending wrath.

As soon as Maria set foot into the next room over, she stopped short when she saw what was on the monitor. “Joshua? What are you—“

 _::Ah; good. I was wondering when you were going to join the conversation::_ Joshua’s expression made his normally calm voice sound grim. _::We’ve picked up something on satellites up in space. I think you should see this::_

The monitor flickered as the other Pretenders and Collin looked on with curious expressions, and another picture appeared in place of Joshua’s face: a line of ships out in space, a fair distance beyond the moon.

Maria sucked in a breath sharply as Joshua’s face appeared again in the bottom right corner of the screen. “What is—“

 _::It appears that Earth has guests::_ Joshua said grimly. _::I’ve been wondering when they would decide to make themselves known, and it seems that a recent upgrade to my sensors have allowed me to push the technology we have to pick up their presence::_

“So Soundwave could be up there monitoring frequencies in one of those ships,” Wildfire noted.

“Possible, certainly,” Sparkseer agreed.

“We will need to make our way up there in order to cut them off before they have a chance to strike,” Megatron said, frowning at the screen. “Do any of you have a ship that you could use in order to—“

“We got here by Space Bridge,” Strongarm said with a shake of her head. “And then they shut them all down to keep us from coming back easily.”

_::Not all of them::_

Maria knew where Joshua was going. “You still have your Space Bridge in an easily-accessible place?”

_::Yes. You will need to come back to the NEST base in the Midwest in order to make use of it – I dare not activate it now to bring you here, as that would make the Quintessans aware of it::_

“Haven’t you already, by contacting us?” First Aid pointed out with a frown.

Joshua shook his head. _::I’m jumping between frequencies, trying new ones. I think I’ve found one the Quintessans aren’t monitoring for now, so hopefully that will throw them off this one time that I call. Come to the base. I’ll meet you there::_

With that, the connection cut out abruptly, leaving Maria frowning at the dark monitor where her cousin’s face had been moments before.

“…does he intend to Space Bridge us up to the Quintessan ships?” Strongarm asked, wide-eyed.

“Considering that we at present do not have any ships that are designed with Cybertronians in mind, that appears to be the case,” Maria replied. “It will give us a chance to surprise the Quintessans, but it will mean that we will possibly be trapped up in space with them. Joshua had better have a plan to counteract whatever it is they are using in their Cerebro Shells in order to retain control over the Cybertronians they take.”

“We will have to see,” Megatron said. “In any case, knowing that there is a Space Bridge here on Earth that is still operational is good news. We can certainly use this to our advantage.”

“It’ll be like the attack on Darkmount all over again,” Wildfire said. “Except that we won’t have Optimus Prime coming back from the dead to save our afts this time.”

Megatron shot Wildfire a look as Maria’s expression became more grim at that.

“We’ll need a plan,” Maria said. “And backup. I doubt that just those of us here in the base will be able to do much against an army of those jellyfish.”

“A part of why I tracked Starscream to this base.”

Maria and the others turned sharply at the voice, and Maria’s eyes widened.

“Or, why the bosses wanted me ta track ya,” the large, almost human-sized rat added as he sat back on his hind legs and looked around at the group. “Hey. Name’s Rattrap, Maximal demolition expert.” The rat grinned, which looked more than a little odd. “An’ you folks just got yerself an audience with Galvatron.”


	16. Chapter 16

**Maria’s POV**

Galvatron’s palace was a network of caves buried in the American Southwest, not far from where Wildfire had been going on her Cerebro Shell-induced heat wave rampage. The caves, by contrast to the desert, were cooler, and definitely a far better place to be if your systems weren’t built for warmer temperatures.

I took the change in temperature in stride as I stepped out of Wildfire’s alt mode, the femme shifting to her Pretender form in order to let the rest slip in through the entrance Rattrap had led us to.

“The caves get bigger in Galvatron’s bit, but this is the only entrance an’ exit I know about,” Rattrap explained. “Hope ya don’t mind.”

“It seems likely that he simply wants to see us humiliated,” Megatron commented.

“We’re guests here, not conquering heroes,” I said. “Or villains. He probably wants to see if it’s possible we could break and lose our collective temper.”

Megatron hummed. “Perhaps.”

I didn’t try to guess what was going through his head. That wasn’t something that I was interested in trying to figure out. It wasn’t necessary for stopping the Quintessans. Not right now.

Meeting Galvatron, on the other hand, was. If we could secure an alliance with him, we would have more allies prepared to back us up when the final battle came. Which, if I had anything to say about it, would happen sooner rather than later.

And somewhere as far from Earth as we possibly dared to go, without placing Cybertron in danger as well.

Rattrap led us – Megatron, Wildfire, Starscream (in cuffs to prevent him from transforming and escaping), Bumblebee, and I through the tunnels that made up Galvatron’s underground base. The tunnels in some places appeared to be naturally carved, so this was probably once a cave system, but some of the other tunnels – especially when we got to the larger ones – had been carved out to become larger. The tunnels were well-lit, too – blue, glowing lamps filled with a kind of Energon fuel lit the path and made all of us look a little weird.

At least, that’s where my train of thought _might_ have led me if I wasn’t already thinking about Galvatron. If he was the leader of the Predacons, not Predaking, then that meant that he had to be more powerful. But powerful in what way? More powerful than Predaking when it came to sheer strength?

Or powerful like Megatron in that he proved himself the far better leader?

I looked over at Megatron as he stood tall among the rest of us, giving Starscream’s gray, red-streaked head glares on occasion if the flier looked like he was trying to inch his way to the back of the group so that he could run as soon as he was out of sight of everyone else.

It made me wonder, what exactly would he have been like in this universe if he had joined up with the Autobots and someone else was leading the Decepticons – or if there was another threat entirely that could have threatened Cybertron.

The tunnel eventually reached the size of an average Cybertronian, letting Megatron and the others shift up to their normal forms. Since I was neither Cybertronian nor naturally giant, I simply jumped on my hoverboard in order to keep up with them.

And since Starscream was cuffed and in his Pretender form as well, I had to have him ride along behind me.

“I don’t see why you people are willing to hand me over to them!” Starscream complained. “All they want out of me is to keep Predaking complacent by letting him rip me to pieces; I can’t live like that! It isn’t living at all!”

Megatron looked down at the two of us as I rolled my eyes and ignored his ranting. “Considering that you still wish to uphold the Decepticon cause despite the fact that I declared it disbanded and you did not treat Predaking as anything other than a pet, I should think that some of their reactions to you is quite valid.” His rasping voice had a sneering tone to it; I guess he liked seeing Starscream in the position he was in as well. “However, it is true that one Cybertronian should not be treated in a manner any less than another Cybertronian. I shall see if that can be brought up to Galvatron and see what he thinks.”

“C-can’t you just _demand_ that he stops?” Starscream shot back.

“You do not demand of leaders of entire races.” Megatron leaned down to look at us more closely – Starscream specifically. The flier flinched back while I ignored them both. “You _request.”_

Starscream ducked his head and said nothing as Megatron returned to his full height.

“Predaking is one of Galvatron’s subjects, so to speak,” I said. “If you want him to leave you alone, you’re going to have to go to the top anyway.”

Starscream made a surprised noise at my words; he clearly wasn’t expecting me to say anything to add to the conversation. I ignored the sound and kept moving forward with the others.

I caught sight of Megatron’s gaze out of the corner of my eye, and when he nodded a little, I knew that I had said something he agreed with.

The tunnel started to widen into a much larger cavern. Lamps hung around the walls, marking where other tunnels entered into this one, and a large hole was cut in the ceiling, creating a tunnel leading up to open sunlight. The rest of the chamber was dark.

Except for the pair of glowing red eyes that watched us from a stone throne that was mostly hidden in the shadows.

“Thank you, Rattrap,” came a rasping voice from the figure on the throne. “You may leave us.”

“More than happy to!” Rattrap scrambled off down one of the other tunnels, disappearing into the darkness and leaving us alone.

With Galvatron.

I couldn’t see him clearly in the dark, but I could tell that he was bigger than the average Predacon or Maximal, since they were all slightly shorter than the average Cybertronian. He definitely looked large and imposing in the shadows – possibly Megatron’s size, in fact.

“So, you are a part of the Cybertronian group that has begun to regain themselves and see sense,” Galvatron growled. “You have brought Starscream with you?”

“We have,” Megatron replied coolly. He nodded slightly to me, and I flew out of the group a short distance and turned the hoverboard slightly so that Galvatron could see the other figure riding my hoverboard. Starscream started trembling furiously, and I could feel the hoverboard starting to bounce a little under our feet.

“You have given him a Pretender form, and interesting choice.” Galvatron sounded amused. “And who are you, who stands with him?”

“I am only giving him a ride; if I had any choice of where else he could be I would have dumped him in Megatron’s hand and left him there, although he might have crushed Starscream as a result.” I looked over at Megatron, who looked a bit miffed at my suggestion. “As for who I am, my name is Maria. I am known as Flare-Up and World Jumper. I have been gone from this place for the last twenty years, and have only now returned.”

Galvatron shifted in his seat slightly. “The Dimension Crosser the Maximals speak of so highly? I had expected someone older.”

“One can only do so much when transferred into a robotic form at the young age of seventeen human years,” I replied without missing a beat. “As of this point in time, in this dimension, I am old enough to be considered 38 years old.”

Galvatron leaned forward, and I caught sight of draconic features in the light streaming down from the skylight. He was similar to Predaking when it came to his alternate mode, then. No wonder Predaking had bowed down to him. “To what do we owe your return then, _World Jumper?”_

The sneering tone in his voice reminded me of Megatron during the war.

I decided to get straight to the point instead of beat around the bush.

“Before the Autobot-Decepticon war and the events of the Rust Age that caused it to begin, Cybertron was temporarily enslaved by another race that claimed to be the creators of that planet’s life,” I replied with a straight face. “They were thrown off, but they are attempting to come back. They are attempting to take back what they think is theirs to take but is not. And we need to stop them before they succeed and move on to other worlds, using the Cybertronians in order to conquer them. The Quintessans’ actions brought me back. And I don’t intend to let them do as they like with the allies I have made in this dimension.”

Galvatron pulled back with a hiss, hiding his face again in the darkness, but his eyes were blazing with a deeper red now. “Yes, those creatures. We have heard of their actions out in the stars. Rhinox has picked up their movements and knows some of what they are planning, if only as a result of tapping into the frequency of their spy and keeping himself hidden I do not know how much longer that is going to be able to last, however, as you have been bringing back those who have been taken by them.”

“We want to end this as quickly as possible,” I replied. “To do that, we needed to take back those they had taken in order to weaken their forces.”

“But now they know that you are coming,” Galvatron pointed out.

“They would have known that Maria was back regardless of whether or not she kicked off the Cerebro Shells,” Wildfire pointed out, stepping forward. “Maria isn’t someone who is known to hide, nor is she about to stand by and let people do what they want. It’s against her nature.”

“Is it?” Galvatron inclined his head.

“It is.” I nodded. “I cannot stand by. And neither should you. This is Cybertron we are talking about them taking – you may not live there, but it contains your ancestry. And if the Cybertronians who are there now are taken, then they will come after you. And you will not be able to withstand against them.”

Galvatron said nothing. Starscream shuddered on my hoverboard and looked like he wanted to jump off and run away as fast as he could. But the drop from here would break his Pretender form’s legs, and so he stayed.

Galvatron let out a low growl that shook the air in the room. Starscream squeak-shrieked in response to the sound and started to scramble back, but then nearly lost his balance. I grabbed his arm and pulled him back onto the hoverboard before he fell over.

“You dare to suggest that you are the one who can tell us what to do?” Galvatron snarled. “You? A mere mortal human?”

“I am not mortal, nor am I human,” I replied coldly. “Do not guess at what I am when you do not know what I have done. I _was_ in a human form. I am _not_ human now. Do not say anything otherwise.”

I noticed a moment later that the temperature in the cave had dropped by ten degrees. I had absorbed the heat in the cave.

That could be useful at a later date. I took note of it and allowed the heat to leak back into the room.

“I am a World Jumper who has seen war and has initiated a Continuum Shift,” I said. “Do not think that I am anything that will easily be taken down.”

The cave remained silent. I could feel the eyes of everyone on me as I focused my gaze on Galvatron’s dark form and bright red eyes.

Galvatron remained silent, then rose to his feet, towering over where I was floating. He stepped forward, revealing that his armor was a deep pink that was nearly a red. The look on his face was cold, and there were fangs peeking out from under his upper lip.

I shifted my stance slightly on my hoverboard, ready to do what I needed in order to defend myself. Starscream made a nervous noise next to me as I glared up at Galvatron.

I had faced against giants before. Predacon or not, I could certainly do it again.

Galvatron eyed me, took in my expression, then threw back his head and laughed loudly, shaking the cavern.

Starscream trembled next to me. I ignored him.

“You have a good amount of determination for something so small,” Galvatron said, grinning. “I like that in a species. You humans are quite filled with it.”

I eyed him cautiously, then relaxed my stance as Starscream let out a sigh of relief.

“The Quintessans are located out beyond this planet’s moon. If you are intent on reaching them, you are going to need a Space Bridge, and more troops than you already have.” Galvatron paused. “I will ally ourselves with you, but only if I join you in the final assault on the Quintessan armada. I believe they have taken someone very important from our society, and I intend to bring him back.”

Galvatron didn’t offer anything else – no hint on who it was that he was looking for or how important they were.

A part of my mind considered that it could be a significant other to Galvatron, but I held back from making a final decision.

“What is your decision, then?”

“If you are willing to help us, then you can come with us when we invade their warships,” I replied.

Galvatron nodded in approval as Megatron shifted behind me. I realized that Megatron had been expecting Galvatron to defer to him instead of to me, but my show of determination made him to consider me as the leader, even if only temporarily.

“We shall be in contact,” Galvatron said with a knowing glimmer in his optics. “I will send Rattrap with you; if you are prepared for the final battle, send him to me. I will find you.”

I gave a short nod in response. “What do you want done with Starscream? I know that Predaking used him as a chew toy in the past.”

Starscream whimpered at that.

Galvatron inclined his head at my inquiry. “Predaking resides on Cyberton, watching over the graves of our dead. I doubt that he has any need for Starscream at this point in time. Our forces will require his air support.”

Starscream let out a sigh of relief.

“However, as I know that he is a coward and a treacherous Cybertronian, he will need to be kept somewhere that it will be ensured he will not run away anytime soon.” Galvatron reached out and plucked Starscream off my hoverboard, causing him to squeak in surprise and shock.

“He is my Air Commander, I will—“

“Predaking claimed Starscream as his, and I am not going to do anything to dispute his claim,” Galvatron cut Megatron off. “He will stay with us. For now. After the Quintessan threat has been settled, then he will be allowed to do as he please. I will _say_ that I sent him back to Predaking, but who am I to say what a Cybertronian does and does not do?” He gave a slight, smirking smile.

A knowing look crossed Starscream’s face at that. I was impressed. Galvatron was an excellent strategist. He could certainly go against Megatron when it came to planning battle plans of any sort.

We were lucky that the two of them were not on opposing sides.

“You are dismissed from my presence.” Galvatron waved us off with his free hand. “Go and meet your other friend in the northern part of this continent. Rattrap!”

There came a scampering noise from behind us somewhere. “Yup! Ya called?”

“Take these guests back to the entrance you took them through. Travel with them to meet their ally, and come back to me when they have prepared a final attack date.”

“You got it!” Rattrap replied cheerily. “Come on – all a’ you. Let’s get out of this dark place before we loose anymore daylight!”

I rolled my eyes at Rattrap’s comment as we followed him back out the way we had come, shifting down to our Pretender forms when we got closer to the small exit. If I had been willing to speak my mind freely, I would have said that Rattrap didn’t like being in Galvatron’s palace for any length of time.

When we got out into the desert above Galvatron’s base again, Rattrap let out a sigh of relief and collapsed against a nearby boulder. “Whoo! Okay, so what now? Can we get a bit of a breather before—“

“We have to keep moving,” Megatron and I responded at once. The two of us exchanged looks. The expression on his face was…challenging, almost.

He saw me as a challenge to the fact that he could be a leader among the Cybertronians again. Interesting.

“…yes, we need to go to the base that Joshua and Jolt presently reside in,” Megatron said, turning his gaze from me to Rattrap. “And we cannot afford to linger here for long.”

“Agreed.” I nodded. “So let’s move before the Quintessans take advantage of the fact that they have two Cybertronians under their control yet and send the walking arsenal of the two after us.”

Rattrap sighed and rose to his feet again. “All right. Let’s go, then.”

I nodded as Wildfire and the others shifted to their vehicle forms. “Let’s see what Joshua has planned.”


	17. Chapter 17

The neighborhood that had been turned into a base looked more like a bunkered-down barricade by the time Maria and the others arrived.

Lennox and Epps met them at the steel gates that had been erected around the area.

“Bout time you showed up!” Epps looked a tad annoyed at the group. “Galloway and the others have been going nuts! They even called the big guns in here!”

“Agent Darby is waiting for you,” Lennox added as the gates opened behind them. “He’s with Joshua and Jolt. They’re in the lab, as far as I know. Galloway’s been hounding them for answers and your friends have been keeping him busy, but I’m not sure how long they’re going to be able to keep his attention off what we’re up to.”

Maria gave them a thumbs-up from Wildfire’s front passenger seat. “Keep him off our backs as long as you can. I would rather not see the government get involved and attempt to take Joshua’s Space Bridge from us when we have need of it.”

The two men nodded, and the group moved into the base and made their way down the street towards Joshua’s lab.

“So, this is where you grew up,” Megatron noted. “Quaint.”

Maria’s eyes narrowed slightly; she could hear a slight sneer in his voice, but she wasn’t sure whether or not it was sincere. She decided against attempting to figure out which one it was for now. There were more important things to worry about.

The caravan of Cybertronians in vehicle form – and Rattrap and Maria – stopped in front of Joshua’s lab. Maria stepped out of Wildfire’s alt mode and made her way up the steps to where Joshua stood in front of the doors, frowning and with his arms folded across his chest.

“You have allied yourselves with the Predacons, then?” Joshua looked over at Rattrap as Megatron and the others shifted down to their Pretender forms.

Maria nodded. “Rattrap will head back as soon as we know when to hit the Quintessans.”

Joshua gave a curt nod in response. “Good. We are going to need all the help we can get, and soon.”

“How soon do you expect us to go up to their ships?” Megatron frowned down at Joshua as he approached with the others.

“By tomorrow at the latest. We are on a very tight clock, and if we wait a second longer, everything could be over for us.” Joshua motioned for the others to follow him into his lab.

“Do you have your future vision back, or is this just your common sense speaking for you?” Maria asked, raising an eyebrow.

“The latter.” Joshua glanced back at Maria. “As well as data that we’ve managed to get our hands on that could spell the end of everything we know if we don’t move fast enough and the Quintessans succeed in their plans.”

Maria’s expression became even more grim at that as the others exchanged dark, serious looks. “Fill us in.”

Joshua nodded as the group moved into one of his labs; the rest of the Cybertronians were already there, standing around a table covered in notes, graphs, and sketches of what Maria guessed were the Quintessan ships – sleek, large things that looked more like bulbous eggs with tentacles breaking free behind them. “The Quintessans want to cyberform Earth and turn it into a second Cybertron, turning Unicron’s body into its own, twisted version of Cybertron’s core, complete with an Anti-Well of AllSparks.”

Ratchet spluttered at that as the other Cybertronians stared in alarm. “What? Impossible – Unicron’s Spark is nowhere near here! As far as we’re concerned, that bundle of negative energy is somewhere the Quintessans will never be able to get their hands on it!”

“We know that, but I doubt the Quintessans do,” Joshua replied. “Which means they’re going to create an empty shell of a planet that won’t be able to retain life at all. I would say that’s a good thing because it means they won’t be able to use or transform the human population, but it also means they could harvest whatever metals result from the cyberforming and use that to their advantage, which would be bad news.”

Maria nodded grimly in agreement. “An entire planet of metal ripe for the taking to create weapons and transport. We can’t let that happen.”

“Exactly. Which is why we have to stop them as quickly as possible, or else Cybertron will lose allies and friends and may end up losing the inevitable war with the Quintessans that will follow.” Joshua’s expression was grim. “We need to reach their ships now.”

“So…does dat mean I’ve gotta go get—“

“Yes it does, Rattrap. We don’t have much time.”

The large rat nodded and quickly scrambled out of the room, leaving the Cybertronians, Maria, and Joshua.

“Do you know anything about the ships?” Maria asked immediately. “Strengths? Weaknesses? Where we would be going in?”

“We’ll be ‘going in’ outside of the ships first,” Joshua replied. “They’re shielded against any sort of forced entry by Space Bridge, you will need to go in from the outside. The element of surprise we will have as a result of that will only be temporary, but—“

“Wait, you’re not comin’ with?” Jazz asked with a frown. “Kid, this planet’s—“

“Someone needs to run the Space Bridge from this side,” Jolt explained. “We figured it’d be better if Joshua was the one who did that, since, he doesn’t have much fighting experience.”

“What about Maria, then?” Strongarm motioned to Maria, who folded her arms across her chest.

“According to what Maria has said, she has essentially fought in a war already.” Joshua nodded to Maria, who nodded curtly in return. “I doubt that she will be having any trouble keeping up with you in the Quintessan warships.”

Wildfire glanced over at Maria, who inclined her head slightly at Joshua’s words before nodding again.

“I don’t expect it to be easy,” Maria said. “But I am prepared for what is coming.”

Joshua nodded. “Good. Unfortunately, as the Quintessans are so far out from Earth and beyond our moon, my scanning equipment can’t pick up much in the way of their defenses. They’re using a strong shield to attempt to keep themselves hidden from our sensors.”

“Why haven’t they put up a camouflage, if you’re able to see what their ships look like?” Bumblebee leaned over the sketches on the table, frowning.

“They seem to think that Earth’s people are primitive enough that we don’t have the technology to see that far out in space,” Joshua replied. “Clearly, they are underestimating humanity and what exactly it is we are capable of.”

“Which is something we can use to our advantage in order to get you all into their ships.”

Maria turned at the sound of the new but familiar voice and blinked when she saw who was standing in the doorway: a young man with dark hair and bright blue eyes that carried more experience in them than someone his age should. Miko was standing behind him, grinning knowingly.

“Jack,” Maria identified.

Jack stepped into the room. “Maria, it’s good to see you again. You’re planning on going up there along with the rest?”

“I am.”

Jack considered Maria’s serious response, then sighed and nodded a little. “Well, whatever you’ve been up to for the last twenty years, I hope you’re up to what you’re going to be facing up there. I’m set to handle ground control as best I can and keep certain people from realizing what exactly it is that we are secretly up against.”

“Like Galloway.” Maria raised an eyebrow.

Miko snickered as Jack quirked an eyebrow.

“Yes, like Galloway,” Jack said dryly. “Right now, Lennox and Epps are set to give him the run-around for as long as possible before he realizes you’re here. Is this everyone who is going up or—“

“We’re getting reinforcements from the Maximals and the Predacons,” Joshua replied. He paused. “Considering that I don’t know what Ultra Magnus is up to on Cybertron, I don’t know if we’ll be able to expect reinforcements from there.”

“I haven’t been able to get in touch with him or the rest of our old friends up there,” Miko spoke up. “It’s like everything’s been cut off.”

“Then he probably has become aware of the fact that the Quintessans are using Soundwave to tap into the communications and did something about it,” Maria said without missing a beat. “If that’s the case, he might give us an assist, but I am not about to expect that. Not now.”

“Agreed.” Joshua nodded. “The Space Bridge is ready for whenever the Maximals and Predacons arrive here, but that will take a day or so. In the meantime, we can talk about possible preparations for what we might find.” He looked down at the papers scattered across the table. “So, does anyone know anything about what the Quintessans might try once you all reach their armada?”

The Cybertronians looked at each other at the question.

“The Quintessans can be silver-tongued, but they are also dangerous of wit and of temper,” Megatron said.

“Not to mention that trial they did on Aquatron,” Bumblebee added. “Saying we were innocent and then _killing_ us by using the Sharkticons? That’s twisted.”

Jazz snorted. “Twisted nothing; that was _normal_. You didn’t want to end up at any of those twisted creatures’ trials, and if you did, you were pretty much toast. Since Aquatron happened, I doubt they’re gonna be using the Sharkticons ever again. But they could have somethin’ else….” He trailed off and shuddered at the thought.

“They were pretty advanced with their weaponry, from what I remember of Aquatron,” Bumblebee added. “They know how we work and how to take us apart and put us back together, and I doubt that they’ve lost that info.”

“But they don’t know how I work,” Maria said, causing the others to look over at her. “They don’t know what a Reploid is, how I’m powered, who I used to be, or what it is I’m capable of. According to what the rest of you have said, they thought me a myth – something that didn’t exist, and something they didn’t need to consider as a part of the equation.”

The Cybertronians looked at each other at that, then looked back at Maria.

“While that is the case, you are going to have to be careful,” Joshua said seriously. “They have Cerebro Shells, if what happened to those of us here is any indication, and they likely have ones that are Mini-Con sized as well.”

“I am expecting that. And I have defenses against things that attempt to suppress my personality and free will,” Maria replied without missing a beat. “I’ll be fine.”

Jack and Joshua exchanged looks at that, frowning.

“She’s telling the truth,” Wildfire spoke up. “Maria can handle whatever the Quints are gonna try and throw at her. Now let’s get to figuring out what the Pit we’re gonna be doing up there and how we’re going to know what to hit and what not to hit.” She raised an eyebrow. “Because I don’t know about you, but I’m itching for a fight and I’d like to see some of their faces smashed in.”

Maria nodded in agreement, a gleam in her eyes that caused Megatron to raise an eyebrow and for the others to take a slight step back from the World Jumper.

“Let’s get to work,” Maria said. “When Galvatron gets here, we should be ready to move out as soon as possible.”


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 17**

Two days later, Maria was standing in front of Joshua’s and Jolt’s lab as Galloway’s jaw dropped and a large, deep red dragon landed on the street in between the houses. Other larger-than-normal creatures arrived with him, including Rattrap and others that Maria did and didn’t recognize.

“What is this?!” Galloway demanded incredulously. “What are these – these monsters doing in the middle of a human military outpost?!”

“Giving assistance to something you have no business knowing about,” Maria replied without batting an eye.

Galvatron chuckled, then shifted, turning into his giant, humanoid-but-not form. “Yes, little human. You have no business in our affairs, as you have not provided us with assistance on certain matters. Begone, and let us handle our own difficulties. We will be fine.”

Galloway looked like he’d just been told to swallow a lemon whole. He glared up at Galvatron, but when the Predacon leaned down to sneer at Galloway more closely the man stumbled back and nearly fell into a hedge in front of the house he’d come out of. He scrambled to regain his balance and ran into the house without another word.

“You’re probably going to end up in hot water with the US Government for a little while, but it will blow over,” Joshua said as he came out of the lab.

Galvatron chuckled darkly. “I do not care. What the humans do is none of my concern, and if and when they learn of what we have stopped today, they will be groveling at our feet thanking us for our actions, instead of considering us as something less than our peers.” His face became more serious. “Where is the Space Bridge that you spoke of?”

Joshua motioned for Galvatron and the others to follow him, then started around behind his lab. Maria followed after him, falling in step with her cousin and watching over her shoulder as the Maximals and Predacons followed Galvatron in their animal forms.

Maria decided that they were respecting Galvatron’s presence and decided against asking about the habits of animal-based Cybertronians and their hierarchy.

The Space Bridge was right where Joshua had set it up again – outside his old Energon mine, and the first location for his lab. Maria recognized the cave and felt a sense of nostalgia.

But only for a moment. It quickly switched to determination again, and she wasn’t about to let memories of times long gone overtake her for even a second.

Joshua stood next to the controls of the Space Bridge – a console with Cybertronian symbols. Clearly, Jolt had a hand in the Space Bridge reassembling.

“I will be here and running the bridge and any communications you may want to have,” Joshua said. “Although, it will be dangerous, considering that Soundwave has yet to be found.” His hand rested on the activation switch. “The coordinates are already set. Are we all prepared?”

“We are,” Maria replied.

The rest of the group – Cybertronians in their Pretender forms, standing around the Space Bridge – nodded in agreement.

“Let us see what these Quintessans think of us, when we invade their land instead of them invading ours.” Galvatron grinned widely.

Joshua nodded, then activated the Space Bridge. A swirling circle of blue appeared in the large metal ring that rose up over everything in sight. “Go – and be careful; we don’t know what it is they are capable of!”

“Got it!” Maria started to run into the Space Bridge, but Wildfire moved ahead of her, shifting up to her Cybertronian form as she did. Maria didn’t bat an eye at the action, although a flicker of annoyance did appear in her eyes for a second.

And then she was through the Space Bridge, and entering a giant, white corridor made of a metal material that Maria couldn’t identify. Wildfire was standing in front of her defensively, looking like she was just about ready to blow an opponent’s brains out at any moment.

But, except for them, the corridor was completely abandoned.

Maria’s comm crackled in her ears as the others filed through the Space Bridge. _::I dare not leave this open for too long; I don’t want to give the Quintessans an opening into our world::_

“Do what you have to do,” Maria replied. “We’ll do what we can up here and call for backup if we have to.”

_::I thought you would understand. Don’t cause any cosmic resets::_

The Space Bridge closed behind them in an instant, leaving the large group cut off from Earth – for now, at least.

“What now?” Bulkhead slammed his wrecking ball melee weapons together.

“We split up in groups of more than two a group and see about finding Soundwave and Shape-Change, if they’re here,” Maria said instantly. “It would mean being able to open communications to the outside and ensuring that we can get into contact with Ultra Magnus safely, without worrying about the Quints listening in. Then we go after the Quints themselves and see about teaching them a lesson about dealing with us.” She grinned widely, but there was no joy in it – only a menacing, dangerous expression that hinted at destruction and terror for any who crossed her.

“Let’s roll.”

**Space Break**

Ultra Magnus had been waiting for the moment when he would be able to make his move. As soon as his ship’s sensors had picked up the Space Bridge’s signal – unshielded despite the Quintessans’ sensors, oddly enough – he knew that his moment had arrived.

“We’re going in!” He yelled to the others. “The Quintessans are going to start getting busy; we are on a time clock until they catch the ones who are causing them trouble! Let’s lock and load!”

The cry that went up in response to his call was unanimous; Cybertronians quickly moved to arm themselves, choosing familiar and unfamiliar weapons as other ships started to move into position out in space.

Ultra Magnus turned to face his window out into space, a slight smirk appearing on his mouth as he gripped the controls.

The Quintessans weren’t going to like what they were about to get, and Ultra Magnus was. Being attacked on two sides – inside and out – was sure to cripple them, especially with the forces working against them.

Ultra Magnus leaned the controls forward, and his ship responded, moving out into the danger zone seconds before he opened fire.

**Space Break – Maria’s POV**

It didn’t take us too long to run into the Quintessans. Or, at least, proof of their existence.

I mowed down a couple Cybertronian-like drones with a blast from my Buster. “The Quintessans seem to see themselves as puppeteer masterminds, if they are sending us disposable foot soldiers to destroy.”

Wildfire grunted from next to me as she sliced a faceless drone’s head off. “You’d think they’d learn their lesson, but apparently not. They like messing with us too much.”

“Yeah. Next thing we know they’ll be saying they made World Jumpers, which is more than just a simple farce. We aren’t bound by the same rules that beings from one dimension are – I have made my mark on too many worlds to say that I belong to one because I was born here.”

Wildfire shot me an odd look at my words; I chose to ignore them as Strongarm took out the last of the drones. She’d chosen to come with us because she wanted to see how Wildfire worked in a given situation and how she worked with me.

At least, that was her excuse. Her real reason was probably an excuse to stay away from Sideswipe and Sunstreaker.

We were about to turn a corner in the corridor and move onto the next section, deeper into the warship, when Wildfire put her arm in front of me and stopped me short.

I gave her an annoyed look. “Wildfire. Are you saying you want to take point?”

“There’s a door in the wall. It could lead to something you might think important.”

I paused at that, tilted my head slightly, then turned my head and looked back at the thing that Wildfire was talking about.

Sure enough, almost invisible in the wall was a sealed door. There were symbols near it, but I couldn’t decipher what it was that they said.

“That better not be an air lock,” I said, frowning.

Wildfire shook her head. “I don’t think it is. Hang on.” She drew a fist back, then threw it forward.

At the same time, the door opened, and the largest, most disgusting-looking face I’d ever seen peeked out, only to get hit in the face by Wildfire’s fire-covered fist.

The thing reeled back with a loud screech that sounded like metal and some kind of angry water monster from the darkest depths of the sea. Wildfire hit it with a fireball, and the faces started turning, moving from a disgusted face to an angry one.

 ** _“You!”_** the thing screeched. **_“How dare you defy the Crea—“_**

“Create this, you warped version of Quintus!” Wildfire shot back with a loud snarl. She punched the monster again, sending it flying back into a wall that was inside the room it had just come out of.

“So that’s a Quintessan,” I noted. _“Quaint.”_

Wildfire snorted at my use of the word, not even commenting on it or the tone that I’d used as she stepped into the room, looking around. “Private quarters. Scrap. I was hoping this one was a lab or something.”

“Why a lab?” Strongarm asked as I moved on my hoverboard to get a better look at the room inside. I saw a berth like the ones Cybertronians normally had, and a desk, but nothing else.

“It’s likely they would have Shape-Change or Soundwave there,” Wildfire replied. “SC is a shifter. They could be having a hard time keeping a handle on her. If we find the lab, we find where they’ve been making the Cerebro Shells and disable them permanently.”

Strongarm stared at Wildfire with somewhat wide eyes as I nodded in response.

“An excellent plan,” I intoned. “Let’s search the rooms and see if we can find any information on where SC and Soundwave might be kept at this very moment. We’re going to need all the help we can get.”

Wildfire nodded in agreement as she pulled out of the unconscious Quint’s private quarters. “Let’s move. We don’t have a lot of time, and they’re definitely aware that we’re here now if they weren’t already.”

**Space Break**

Shape-Change wasn’t sure what to make of the alarms that started blaring in the lab and woke her from her light recharge. She blinked a couple times, then focused on the Quintessan lab.

There weren’t any Quints to be seen.

She blinked, then frowned, then rose to her feet and approached the bars of energy that separated her from the rest of the lab. It looked like the Quints had left in a hurry when she had still been waking up from recharge after the last time they had attempted to take her over – which had once again ended in failure.

So what had made them scramble out of the lab so quickly without bothering to clean up the mess that had been left behind?

Shape-Change looked around the lab, then heard the sound of the Quintessans screaming over the loudspeakers. She rolled her eyes and ignored it; they were speaking in their own language, rather than a warped version of Cybertronian, so she didn’t have any reason to listen to it or try to figure it out.

But whatever was on the loudspeaker had to have been what freaked them out. Somehow.

So she could take this change as an opportunity to escape from the place that she was trapped in.

Shape-Change’s expression shifted slightly as she started thinking, and a sly grin started to cross her face.

**Space Break**

Megatron broke down the door, paused, then screamed loudly in anger when he saw what the Quintessans had done to the former Third in Command of the Decepticons.

He charged into the room as Sideswipe and Sunstreaker stood at the entrance and watched with wide eyes as he tore into the wires that plugged Soundwave into the walls, of communication equipment, tearing them out of the Cybertronian’s body with a frenzy of pure fury that was not to be crossed and not to be interfered in.

The room that Soundwave was in looked like a Quintessan communication hub. Monitors with their words were all over the walls, plugged into Soundwave as that same language played across his mask. As Megatron continued to tear the wires out of the head of his Third, the monitor flickered sharply before turning black.

It was only after all the wires had been unplugged that Megatron took his blade to the bug that was on the back of Soundwave’s neck, destroying the Cerebro Shell in one swift move.

Megatron stood there with his blade held against the Cerebro Shell and Soundwave’s neck, the bug sliced in two horizontally. He lowered his blade and retracted it, panting heavily and relaxing his tense form as the bug’s pieces fell to the floor.

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe exchanged looks at Megatron’s actions, then looked back at him.

“You, uh…” Sideswipe pointed to the ceiling, where the alert in Quintessan had turned into static before dying abruptly while Megatron had been rampaging. “You just cut off all their communications.”

Megatron looked over at them with a tired expression, then nodded. “I should think I did as much, or at least damaged it.” His eyes narrowed as his angered expression appeared again. “Soundwave should not have been treated in this manner. I am not going to allow them to use him in this way even further.”

Soundwave’s monitor of a mask flickered, and he lifted his head and started to look around silently. He paused when he saw Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, then turned and looked up at Megatron behind him.

“We just freed you from Quintessan control,” Megatron said. “We are moving against them now. If you do not feel up to fighting against them, then I understand and would be more than willing to—“

Soundwave held up a hand. “Soundwave: fit for battle. Quintessans: will pay.”

Megatron blinked in surprise as the twins exchanged looks again.

Megatron quickly recovered and grinned widely. “Excellent. Let us endeavor to find some which will soon learn why you don’t take Soundwave.” He offered a hand, and Soundwave took it, allowing for Megatron to pull Soundwave to his feet. “Come; we have much to conquer.”

“Agreed.”

Soundwave moved towards the door, and Sunstreaker and Sideswipe stepped aside, allowing Soundwave to step out into the corridor.

Soundwave looked to the right and to the left, then started down the corridor in a particular direction as Megatron stepped out after him.

“Where is he going?” Sideswipe asked.

“To where he needs to be,” Megatron replied simply. “Come. He knows where he needs to go, and as a result, we shall be where we will want to be.” He grinned. “We have Quintessans who need to see what it is that they have attempted to control when they cannot.”

**Space Break**

The Quintessans were incensed and terrified – or, they would be, if they could feel more than one emotion at a time. So the results were that some were terrified and some were angry.

And then there were the ones who wanted to wring the necks of everyone who came close, and would have done so were it not for the fact that there were other things to worry about.

Like the fact that a creature thought to be recent Earthen and Cybertronian myth was, in fact, real. They hadn’t considered the World Jumper in their calculations; they hadn’t expected they would have to _deal_ with a creature that was supposedly capable of traveling to other worlds and was capable of using powers that were rare or impossible.

However, that could be used to their advantage. They merely had to corner this one and find a way to bring this myth under their power.

Perhaps then…


	19. Chapter 19

Maria and Wildfire were an incredible team that Strongarm knew she would never be able to match.

At the same time, she also saw how much they relied on her in order to give them the backup they didn’t have

But, at the same time, Strongarm couldn’t help but feel uneasy. They hadn’t run into many Quintessans, and the ones they had had either screamed in terror or had screamed in anger.

Just what was going _on_ here?

It looked like neither Maria nor Wildfire were into looking for the answers right at that moment. They were looking for targets to destroy.

They were about to round a corner in the corridor when something else came around the corner before they did.

Or, rather, some _one._

Strongarm frowned and moved back a step as Maria and Wildfire moved into defensive stances, looking like they were ready to hit this new opponent upside the head with whatever fire attack they had stewing.

But as soon as they saw the helmet of the figure and the fact that he had _white lion_ fur over his Cybertronian form gave them pause.

That, and the blank, white glow in his eyes.

“What is this?” Maria asked coldly.

Blue sparks rose from the other’s white fingertips, and Maria stiffened instantly.

“You are trespassing,” the creature in front of them said flatly. “You will be disposed of now.”

“Fire, Strongarm, you go on ahead,” Maria growled through gritted teeth. “I’ll take care of this…this _Predacon.”_

The figure in front of them stiffened slightly, but said nothing.

“You sure?” Wildfire countered.

“I’m certain. Now go.”

Wildfire inclined her head, then gave a nod and looked back at Strongarm. “Come on.” She moved around the lion-like Cybertronian, Strongarm quickly following after her.

“What’s going on?” Strongarm asked in worried confusion as they left the other two behind. “Maria said we shouldn’t leave her behind!”

“Well, plans change,” Wildfire growled back. “Especially when you find another World Jumper.”

“What?!” Strongarm looked back, but they had turned the corner. “That was a – how did you—“

“Those blue sparks on his fingers didn’t look like Spark Energy or electricity. Maria does that herself sometimes. That Predacon – Maximal – whoever – is another World Jumper.” Wildfire frowned. “Now it’s just a matter of figuring out who exactly he is.”

**Maria’s POV**

The Cybertronian wasn’t expecting me to drop him through a portal and follow after him.

Nor was I expecting him to, as soon as he hit the ground of the colosseum, to groan and for his optics to flicker from white to blue.

I hovered near where the portal had opened for a moment, then lowered myself to the ground as he pushed himself to his feet.

I’d chosen the abandoned tournament arena from the Smash Worlds Tournament, which I had not attended since its first year and had yet to get an invitation for again. A part of me wondered if that had something to do with the World Collision, but I put that thought out of my head.

“Are you going to attack me again?” I asked, eyes narrow.

The mech blinked at me in confusion. “What are you talking about? The last thing I remember is attempting to arrive home. I was in the portal, but –“ He shook his head, then looked around. “Where am I?”

“I pulled you through to an alternate dimension,” I replied. “I thought fighting you on another plane might be better than allowing you to do as you liked in dropping us to different dimensions.” I nodded to the colosseum. “The Quintessans were using you to do their dirty work.”

“Quintessans?” The other’s optics widened. “No…I thought their influence --!” He glanced down at his chest and clenched his servos. “That shouldn’t be possible.”

I frowned, then flew closer. “What do you mean? And who are you, to know who they are and what the Quintessans are capable of?”

The mech stared at me, then started to get to his feet. “My name is Lio Convoy, leader of the Maximals. Centuries ago, my team and I arrived on Earth in order to escape from a Predacon warship. Unfortunately, Galvatron and his troops followed after us. After some time, we discovered that there was another ship coming in, and they proved to be our undoing.”

Lio Convoy… _Maximal_ leader? Now Galvatron’s thought of looking for someone who was missing made more sense. The Quintessans had intervened and caused him to disappear.

“They came to us as friends, saying they had already been to Cybertron and offered to teach us how to harness our alternate forms.” Lio snorted. “However, we had discovered them already in order to survive, so they decided to find another way to enslave us." The look on his face became an angry one. "They decided to tamper with my Matrix."

That threw me for a momentary loop. “Your Matrix? The only Matrix I am aware of is the one that Optimus had.”

Lio blinked in confusion, then shook it off. “There were many Matrixes in the beginning. I carry the one which represents my own faction – the Maximals. Galvatron, my foe, carries the Matrix for the Predacons. There have been rumors that there was one other that represented Cybertron, but….”

This was interesting information. “And you say the Quintessans are capable of tampering with it.”

“Yes. They are capable of making you see visions – to hear things that you _shouldn’t_ hear. And…doing things that one would not normally do.” Lio took a shaky breath. “Rhinox was the one who managed to bring me out of my stupor when last I was in this state by taking me to an alternate realm for a short time. I have been trying it repeatedly, but it doesn’t seem to work for me. And every time I spend a large amount of time in other worlds, something pulls me back, and I—“

“You black out,” I finished grimly. “So their control has limits.” She frowned. “Is it possible for you to turn the Matrix _off?”_

“Turn it off?” Lio looked at me in surprise. “But that will leave me stranded!”

“Don’t be so sure. I’m a professional at generating portals and going from world to world.” I grinned, but it wasn’t because I was pleased – not entirely. “So, if you’ll just take care of it, then I’ll get us back and we can do what we need in order to make sure they never bother us again.”

Lio Convoy looked hesitant at first, then surprised. “You? My apologies, but I hadn’t thought that Primus would grant this power to one so small!”

“There is more to me than just my size,” I replied boldly. “Much more. Are you prepared to trust me?”

Lio hesitated again. Then he nodded, determination crossing his face.

“Then let’s roll.”

**Space Break**

Joshua noticed that the communication barrier dropped in his own way.

Mostly because Jolt told him.

_::Megatron found Soundwave. Quintessan communication is completely down and there’s no way they’re getting it back. The ones we’ve seen are in complete disarray – they weren’t expecting us to fight back::_

“Interesting,” Joshua spoke aloud. “Considering what we know, I should think that the Quintessans would have expected us and reacted accordingly. Why are they panicking?”

_::I don’t know. Something tells me we’re going to find out::_

“Keep your eyes and ears open. There’s no telling what’s coming.”

_::Got it::_

Joshua lowered his hand from his ear and looked over at Lennox and Epps. “They’re making progress faster than I had been expecting them to. Something else must be happening to the Quintessans to have them fall apart so quickly and easily against Maria and the others.”

The two men exchanged looks at the Reploid’s words.

“So, what you’re saying is that they’re winning up there?” Lennox asked.

“They’re winning, but I’m not sure if there will be a cost to it later down the line.” Joshua looked at the Space Bridge controls, then fiddled with them a little. “Something else is going to happen up there. Something unexpected. What else it is, we’re going to have to be prepared.”

**Space Break**

Sparkseer broke down the door and stopped. “Jolt, I do not think you should see this place.”

“Why not?” Jolt started to push past Sparkseer, Coil right behind him. “I’ve seen the other rooms, so I don’t see a problem with—“

He cut himself off as soon as he caught sight of what Sparkseer was trying to keep hidden from him.

“…Oh.” Jolt blinked a couple times.

“What is it?” Coil tried to see around Sparkseer, but the taller mech moved himself in Coil’s line of view.

“You are not going to see this,” Sparkseer said. “You are not.”

“What makes you think that I’m not going to—“

“Sparkseer? Jolt?”

Coil cut himself off at the questioning voice, and he turned his head towards the wall. “Who was that? SC?”

Jolt started towards the wall as Sparkseer stood in the doorway, optics flashing a brighter blue for a moment.

Shape-Change was standing behind bars of glowing energy that didn’t look the least bit friendly.

“What are you doing in here?” Jolt asked. “We thought he Quints would be using you to take on the shape of any one of the rest of us!”

“I wasn’t what they were expecting.” Shape-Change shrugged. “A part of my programming changes every time I shift; they’ve been trying to figure out how to get past it, but I haven’t given them any hints and they haven’t gotten into my head.”

Jolt started inspecting the controls as Sparkseer relaxed and stepped into the room, allowing Coil to scramble around him and stop short as soon as he caught sight of the lab equipment.

“It is as she says; she is safe from the Cerebro Shell’s controlling programs,” Sparkseer said. “Whether it really is from shifts in her mind to stand for the changes in form or not is something that I’m not entirely certain about, but it does work as a defense against their control.”

“Where’d the jellyfish go?” Coil frowned, looking around.

“They bolted after the alarm went to static.” Shape-Change frowned. “What is going on? What are you doing up here?”

“Joshua fired back up the Space Bridge,” Jolt replied, not looking up from his work on the control panel. He paused and grinned at her. “Maria’s back.”

“Maria’s _what?_ ” Shape-Change frowned. “I had thought that she wouldn’t return after she disappeared. World Jumpers are never said to stay in one dimension for long.”

“Well, she’s back, and she’s sparking mad over the Quintessans and what it is that they’re doing.” Jolt pulled on a few wires and grinned as the energy bars dissolved. “She’s up here now, actually.”

“I find that hard to believe; Wildfire would have never allowed Maria to put herself into a dangerous situation.”

“Things have changed,” Sparkseer replied. “And quite drastically.”

Shape-Change frowned at that, but said nothing. She looked around the lab for a moment, then looked back at the rest of the group. “We won’t have it calm like this for long. There’s something else going on that could end up changing everything.”

The others looked at her.

“What do you mean?” Jolt asked.

“They’ve got someone else. I’ve only seen glimpses of his armor, but—“

“His?” Coil repeated. “Who else disappeared?”

“No one.” Shape-Change shook her head. “Someone came back.”

**Space Break**

The Quintessans had now seen what the creature called Flare-Up was capable of.

And they did not like it.

The creatures hissed at each other in disapproval and anger as they lost their connection to one of their more-favored soldiers. They could not afford for this to happen even one more time.

They directed their final warrior into place and waited for the inevitable while more of their stupidly weak ships were destroyed by the force of the outside.

They’d just wanted to find Unicron’s corpse and turn it into a home world. The Cybertronians had been a bonus at first, but now they were nothing more than a curse.

Their home world was dying, the conquered races were rebelling in succession, and now they were only starting to feel twinges of regret towards their actions.

Quintus would be severely disappointed in them, if he knew what his children had done.

Indeed, he was. For he was their dying world.

_Primus…Father…forgive me…._

The Quintessans shut out Quintus’ mental pleas. They had no more use for him. Now they needed Unicron.

If they could reach him.

**Space Break**

It didn’t take the others too long to reach the command center of the warship they had Bridged into. Wildfire considered asking Joshua later if he’d known where the command ship of this whole armada was when he’d Bridged them up.

“Where’s Maria?” Coil asked instantly as the groups joined up.

“Dealing with something,” Wildfire replied. “She’ll probably be back when—“

A Cybertronian-sized portal opened up in one of the adjoining corridors, and Maria few out, followed closely by the white-lion Cybertronian who had confronted them earlier.

Wildfire started to move into an attacking stance. “Maria—“

“Lio stands with us,” Maria cut her off calmly. “He turned his Matrix off; the Quintessans are unable to get into his head, and he is willing to assist us in any way he can.”

Lio gave a nod. “Yes, and you are going to need all the help you can get, if what Maria has told me is true concerning the Quintessans.”

Galvatron stepped forward, moving past Megatron and Soundwave – the latter who moved in order to appear miffed. “Lio Convoy, it is good to see you alive and whole.”

Lio looked up at Galvatron, frowning. “Galvatron. It has been some time since we met face to face.”

“Indeed.” He chuckled. “I assume you are here to assist us in destroying the Quintessans?”

“As they have taken my ability to use my Matrix, and they have done more than that to Cyberton, yes. I do not intend to stand by and let them do as they like with our home.”

Galvatron nodded as Rhinox – one of the Maximals who had come up with them – moved forward, awe and shock and relief appearing on his face.

“It’s good to see you have your sense of self again,” Rhinox said.

Lio blinked in surprise when he saw Rhinox, then laughed. “Yes, it is. And it is good to see that you are still in one piece!” He looked over at the closed door ahead of them. “But we have one more obstacle to see. I should hope that you are all prepared, because this is someone you have most likely seen before.”

The large group exchanged looks at Lio’s words.

“What do you mean?” Maria asked, frowning.

“I’m talking about the People’s Prime,” Lio motioned to the door ahead of them, with the form of a five-faced Quintessan, tentacles spread out in an attack stance. “The only Prime who stepped out into the open and put himself into the narrative of history.”

Maria looked like something cold had settled in his stomach. “It can’t be….”

Lio motioned to the door as it opened, revealing a room with computer equipment lining the walls and a single, large figure that stood in the middle of the room, battle mask engaged.

“Optimus Prime.”


	20. Chapter 20

The others couldn’t believe what they were hearing from Lio. The expression on Maria’s face was especially telling.

It was the most shock and surprise she’d shown after her return from her twenty-year absence.

Maria quickly pulled her emotions back into its mental corral, absently noting that Optimus looked like he had when she’d last seen him – before he had dove into the Well of AllSparks. “Optimus knows how each of us move, how each of us think, and what each of us are capable of. The Quints are going to use that to their advantage.”

“Then we’re going to need something unexpected,” Jolt spoke up. “Maria, you haven’t fought in Optimus’ presence, you –“

“No. I’m far too small to be able to stand against him for long.” Maria paused. “He is going to need a distraction. Something large enough to keep his attention.” She looked over at Sparkseer. “Does he have a Cerebro Shell?”

“No. However, there is something…wrong…with something in his chest cavity.” Sparkseer frowned.

“His Matrix.” Maria tapped her chin in thought, frowning.

Megatron shot her a look. “His Matrix?”

“The Quintessans are capable of tampering with it, just as they did with mine,” Lio said. “As the People’s Prime is carrying Cybertron’s Matrix, that leaves him vulnerable to their control.”

The others looked at him, except for Maria, who had pulled out a small, rectangular device that was red and black and had a strange-looking, circular symbol that didn’t look familiar to the others.

Or, unfamiliar to most.

“Maria,” Wildfire said warningly. “What are you planning on doing?”

“Bringing friends over.” Maria turned on the device and brought up a screen. “Ones Optimus hasn’t faced against.”

“What are you talking – oh.” Coil’s eyes widened. “You’re bringing in them?”

“Who?” Bulkhead asked with a frown.

“Pokémon,” Maria replied simply. “Since I’ve never summoned them here as backup and Optimus has never faced against them face-to-face.” She waved her device sharply. “Merlin! Loki! Chaos! I request your assistance!”

Three lights burst from the device in Maria’s hand; two flew up into the air as the other moved down to the floor far below Maria’s hoverboard. They materialized into creatures with strange forms – strange to the optics of those who hadn’t spent much time with Maria, that is.

Megatron eyed the three creatures with a raised optic ridge. “You think these…organic creatures will be of much assistance to us? That they will be capable of doing anything against the Prime I once called brother?” He glanced over at Lio Convoy, who stared back him with somewhat wide optics.

The purple, cat-like creature turned blue eyes up to the silver mech. _“Maria, what have you called us to?”_

“Finishing a war before it starts,” Maria replied. “There is someone who is being mind controlled in the next room.” She pointed at the cobalt and red-armored figure standing in the next room, not having gone after them just yet. “I need you to find the device they are using to hack him, as well as distract him. Are you up to that?”

The little orange-blue lightning bolt-like creature zipped around Maria’s head and cackled before the other flying creature – a little thing with a yellow helmet on his head and twin tails with red crystals set into them – reached out with a paw and caught him with an unseen power.

 _“Do not go running around when we are on the job, Loki,”_ the other creature said seriously.

“Boo.” Loki pouted.

“Merlin, keep Loki in check, but the two of you will be looking into finding the device and shutting it down,” Maria said seriously. “Chaos, you’re with us keeping Optimus distracted. Are you up to the task?”

Chaos looked back at Optimus, who still stood unmoving, then looked back at Maria and nodded seriously. _“I am prepared.”_

Megatron, on the other hand, didn’t seem too keen on the idea.

“Why should we rely on an organic creature from another world for backup?” Megatron growled. “I do not see how such a creature can—“

 _“Do not underestimate an ally,”_ Chaos cut Megatron off. _“I was designed as a weapon of mass destruction in my dimension. My abilities are at their max.”_

Megatron paused at that, considering.

“I’m considering that settled,” Maria said. “Are you prepared for this?”

Merlin and Loki nodded as the others in the group shifted into attacking stances.

“Let us see what they have done to make Optimus what they think he needs to be.” Galvatron grinned, slamming clenched fists together. “I had always wondered what it would be like to fight one of the original Thirteen. And the People’s Prime, no less!”

Maria felt the shock from that comment try to rise up again, but she pushed it back down.

There would be time for her to be shocked later. Right now, there were other things for her to be thinking about.

“Let’s do this,” Maria muttered. “Chaos, move in!”

 _“Let us see how he handles me.”_ Blue, electric energy sparked from the three-fingered paws, and he lunged forward into the room in front of them.

Optimus _moved._

He lunged forward, drawing a blade and intending to cut Chaos down. In response, the Pokémon warped to one side as Merlin and Loki shot into the room while Chaos kept the mind-controlled Cybertronian distracted.

Megatron lunged into the room himself, summoning his sword and catching Optimus’ blade with ease. “If you were going to decide to come back from the dead, brother, you could have come to me first instead of letting the Quintessans catch you by surprise!” He pushed Optimus back, throwing the mech off-balance. “Really, Optimus, you could have done far, far better than that.”

Optimus grunted, but didn’t say anything else as he charged at Megatron again as the others filed into the room, staying on the outskirts of the fight.

Chaos charged up an attack made of blue electricity, then threw a sphere of it at Optimus’ left leg. The attack exploded across his armor and caused him to stumble only momentarily.

Megatron took advantage of that and threw a leg into Optimus’ stomach, causing his opponent to stumble back a little. “You have something that is leaving me at a disadvantage, Optimus! So I am afraid that I will have to fight dirty in order to even the odds between me and myself.” He grinned widely and laughed loudly; he was enjoying himself a little too much.

Optimus raised his blade, intending to strike Megatron in the helm.

“Oooh, this is a cool! I think this is important!”

_“Loki, don’t touch that. Let me.”_

“Oooh, come on, Merlin, just this once, let me—“

_“No.”_

There came the sound of electricity zapping from a back corner of the room. Maria looked over just as Merlin the Uxie pulled something out of an open panel in one of the nearby computer consoles: a device that looked like a rectangle of metal, with a glowing red sphere held in the middle of it, almost like the metal was two handles for the sphere trapped inside.

As soon as it was pulled out of the console, Maria saw and heard the snap of wires, and Optimus Prime froze before dropping to his knees. His optics went dark.

Megatron stared at Optimus, then looked over at Merlin, who was holding the item in his hands. He held a servo out. “Hand it over.”

Merlin hesitated, then looked over at Maria.

“Is there any way to sever the connection between the fake and Optimus?” Maria asked evenly.

“We do not have the time,” Megatron said pointedly.

“Agreed,” Galvatron spoke up. “We need to take care of the Quintessans as quickly as possible. We do not have time to disconnect him at this point in time.”

“So let me take control.” Megatron motioned for Merlin to hand over the false Matrix.

Merlin hesitated. _“Loki and I can disconnect the two, but it will take time for us to be able to do that. We will not have enough time for us to be able to do so before these…’Quintessans’ overrun us.”_

Megatron motioned more insistently.

Merlin looked over at Maria.

Maria nodded a little. “We can trust Megatron.”

Merlin sighed. _“So be it.”_ He dropped the fake Matrix into Megatron’s waiting hand, then pulled back to hover next to Maria, pulling Loki along behind him.

“I know _exactly_ what to do with this,” Megatron growled. He held the false Matrix in front of him in both servos. His chest plates opened up in a somewhat dramatic show, and he slammed the false Matrix into his chest with no small amount of force.

Optimus’ head jolted in response to Megatron’s actions, but he didn’t raise it.

Megatron stared at Optimus’ unmoving form. “Get up.”

Optimus’ optics flickered on at Megatron’s words, and he wordlessly rose to his full height.

Maria raised an eyebrow slightly. One of Optimus’ optics was the blank white of the Quintessan control…and the other was its normal blue.

“He’s aware,” Maria said. “More than he was.”

“Indeed,” Megatron agreed. He inclined his head slightly. “I would ask you how you managed to come back from the dead, but you don’t seem to want to be talkative at the moment.”

Optimus didn’t answer.

“I don’t know how aware you are of what is happening, but I expect that we will have some things to talk about when this is over.” Megatron motioned with his head towards the closed door on the other side of the room. “Are there Quintessans on the other side?”

Optimus gave a curt nod.

“Good.” Megatron grinned widely. “Let’s make sure they learn that they should not cross us!”

The two of them charged the door as one and broke it down without breaking their stride. The screeching screams that came from the next room caused a slight smile to appear on her face for only a second.

It was nice to hear them get what was coming to them, well before they could do anything to her home world.

At least she was able to stop these aliens before they started, unlike the Dark Arms.

**Space Break**

Magnus was ready to board one of the five remaining ships himself when they suddenly split into smaller pieces and scattered in different directions. The Cybertronians who were out in space flew this way and that in order to catch more of the fleeing Quintessans, but then a broadcast went out from the main command ship, which was still in one piece.

_::Ultra Magnus? This is Megatron::_

Magnus put a servo to his comm. “Megatron? What are you—“

 _::The boy known as Joshua is very resourceful::_ the mech purred back. _::We will be Bridging back to Earth shortly. This ship has been cleared out; what of the rest of the fleet?::_

“We have sent any survivors scattering to the stars; we’re working on clean-up now.”

_::Let them be. They have learned their lesson, and they will not be bothering us ever again::_

Magnus frowned at that, but he sent out a call-back for the other Cybertronians as the Quintessan escape pods winked out into the stars. “What have you found?”

 _::Their home world is dying; it seems they thought that Unicron would make an excellent substitute. They did not realize what could result from finding Cybertronians on the planet’s surface::_ Megatron paused. _::Meet us on Earth. There is much we have to talk about::_

Magnus frowned at Megatron’s words. “What is it that you have found besides the reason for the Quintessans’ movements?”

Megatron laughed. _::You will just have to come and see, Ultra Magnus::_

Megatron terminated his side of the connection, leaving Ultra Magnus frowning, wondering what it was that Megatron had managed to find.

He shook his helm and turned his attention to the others filing back into his ship. They had somewhere that they needed to be.


	21. Chapter 21

Maria stood in front of the deactivated Space Bridge as Magnus’ ship landed in the street, keeping her expression stoic and calm.

The Quintessans were gone, but there were still some things to take care of on her home world before she could feel like relaxing.

Matthew was still AWOL, for one thing.

Magnus stepped out of the shuttle as the human soldiers scattered, some of them dragging a screaming Galloway across the street – something about how the Cybertronians were monsters and he didn’t want to see them invade private Earth space.

Like that was the biggest thing that humans had to worry about.

Magnus looked around for a moment, then caught sight of Maria and strode towards her. She stepped onto her hoverboard and rose up to meet him face to face in response, raising her head slightly.

“Maria,” Magnus greeted, looking the little Reploid over. “I had not thought I would see you face to face again.”

“I was expecting it,” Maria replied. “The jump in time between when I saw you last and now was not expected.”

Magnus grunted. “Perhaps not. Where is Megatron?”

“Helping Joshua and Jolt with something.”

The truth of it was that they were attempting to work out how to disconnect Optimus’ Matrix from the fake one Megatron had obtained without destroying either. Considering that Megatron wanted a trophy as proof of what he had done, they felt he deserved to keep it whole instead of in pieces.

Magnus raised an optic ridge. “How is it that he could help them?”

“It has something to do with what we found up on the Quintessan ship.” Maria paused, then leaned around Magnus a little. “Lio Convoy, this is Ultra Magnus, one of Optimus Prime’s generals and the leader of the Wreckers. Bulkhead and Wheeljack were a part of their number at one point during the war.”

Magnus turned at Maria’s statement and found himself looking at a face similar to Optimus’, but at the same time not.

The Maximal bowed. “It is an honor to meet someone so close to the People’s Prime.”

Magnus’ optic ridge rose even higher at the comment.

“Magnus, this is Lio Convoy, the missing leader of the Maximals that Galvatron’s been looking for,” Maria added without missing a beat. “The Quintessans had him.”

“I see,” Magnus replied. He nodded to Lio Convoy. “Stand tall, soldier. I have no need for formalities now.”

Lio rose at that and nodded. “I understand you have been leading your people in Optimus’ momentary absence.”

“I have been as a part of a council of Cybertronians, yes.” Magnus frowned. “Momentary? As far as I am aware, Optimus perished bringing our home world back to life.”

Lio blinked. “You mean Maria hasn’t told you?”

“Told me what?” Magnus looked over at Maria, frowning. “What is he going on about?”

“Megatron’s surprise,” Maria replied. A slight smirk toyed on her face for a moment before it cut off to a more serious expression. “The Quintessans intercepted him coming from the Well of AllSparks is the best we can guess for the moment. Joshua and Jolt are working on getting him to the point he can tell us what happened.”

“What are you talking about?” Magnus demanded sharply. “Who is it the Quintessans intercepted? What do you mean about the Well of AllSparks?”

The back of the lab opened up in a strange, mechanical manner that made it look like the front of an airplane hanger or the side of some little kid’s doll house set.

Optimus Prime stepped out and straightened himself up, rubbing the back of his helm like he had a pounding headache.

Magnus, noticing the movement, turned in order to see what was the source and froze.

“…Optimus?” Magnus asked in disbelief. “What – but – how?”

“…I am still attempting to figure that out myself,” Optimus replied, lowering his hand from the back of his helm. “The Primes decided that I was to return to the physical world, but the Quintessans were expecting me and intercepted my return to Cybertron. They….intended to use me to awaken Unicron, I believe.”

“Impossible,” Magnus scoffed. “Unicron’s Spark no longer resides here.”

“Indeed not,” Optimus agreed. “However, they were unaware of that.”

“Just as we were unaware of the fact that you were the Thirteenth Prime?” Maria raised an eyebrow.

Magnus looked at Maria sharply before looking back at Optimus. “You’re _what?!”_

Lio looked concerned. “I was not aware you had chosen not to inform them during the war – I –“

“You are not at fault, Lio Convoy,” Optimus rumbled. “Worry not. I had thought that they would eventually know the truth, just not in this manner.”

Lio relaxed at Optimus’ words.

“When were you planning on this coming into existence?” Magnus demanded. “From the Covenant?”

“Perhaps. I was willing to let time run its course, but it seems time was not willing to let me do as I wished.” Optimus shook his helm. “Quintus is passing from the physical world with each passing cycle because of the Quintessans’ actions. I doubt that he will be able to able to provide for them for much longer.”

“Quintus?” Magnus repeated. “Quintus _Prime?_ ”

“I doubt anyone else has that name,” Maria replied lightly.

Optimus nodded. “I understand that you would find this very difficult to take in, but there are some things that I need to do.”

“It involves Quintus,” Magnus guessed.

“Yes. The Quintessans have had their run with him for him long enough. More than long enough.” Optimus’ optics darkened.

Magnus nodded. “Anything you need, Optimus.”

Optimus gave a short nod in return, then turned to look over at Maria. “This is something you will not be able to assist me with. You will be needed elsewhere.”

Maria frowned. “Where is it that I’m needed?”

“Matthew,” Optimus said, “is missing.”

Maria’s eyes widened.

Magnus looked between the two of them as Lio looked confused.

“Matthew?” Lio repeated.

“My brother,” Maria said almost absently. “He hasn’t come back since the Continuum Shift.”

“Someone will tell you where to find him,” Optimus said. “He will be here after I’ve left.”

“You don’t know who,” Maria said.

“You will know him when you see him.” Optimus shook his head. “Beyond that, I cannot say for certain.”

Maria nodded. “Understood. “I’ll keep an eye out for him. Is there anything you will need from me in order to help you?”

“We’ll already be able to take care of everything we’re going to need,” Jolt replied, stepping out of the back of the lab. Joshua was standing on his shoulder. “You go and find your brother. We have things handled here.”

Maria considered that.

“World Jumpers are only needed in places where things have gone out of control,” Joshua said. “I am needed here. You are needed elsewhere. We’ll have things handled while you are out finding Matthew.”

“What are we going to do about this little revelation of ours, though?” Wildfire stepped out into the open, looking at Optimus critically while Magnus looked over at her in surprise. “People’s Prime? Well, the people are going to be going insane when they realize that one of the Firsts was leading the Autobots in the war.”

“Who I was and who I am have not changed,” Optimus replied evenly. “My actions and the sides I chose in the war should not be considered as though I was following Primus’ orders directly. I was acting on my own.”

“And Orion Pax?” Megatron stepped into the open now. “Was that all an act, Optimus?” There was a hardness in his optics, as though he was seriously reconsidering what had happened between the two of them.

Optimus shook his head. “When I went into the well and reemerged as Orion Pax, my memories of Optimus were not within reach. I was not aware of who I had been until I was given the Matrix by Primus in the last moments of the war here on Cybertron.”

“And the subsequent memory loss after Unicron’s defeat?”

“An unforeseen after-effect of relinquishing all the knowledge of my fellow Primes to put Unicron back in slumber,” Optimus replied evenly. “Even now, I do not remember what had happened in that span of time.”

Megatron considered that, then nodded a little. “I see. I appreciate your honesty, Optimus. Perhaps we can do something about the Quintessans together?”

Optimus inclined his head slightly at Megatron’s words, then nodded. “I will need someone with a strong hand and a silver tongue, to use the human phrases. Ultra Magnus, you will remain on Cybertron and continue to do what you can to govern the planet. When I return from my mission involving Quintus, I do not intend to take that position from you or the council you have set in place.”

“Very well.” Magnus straightened. “It’s good to have you back, sir.”

Optimus nodded again. “Let us return. There is much to discuss.”

“Good luck,” Maria spoke up. “You may not need it, but I feel I should say it anyway.”

Optimus looked over at Maria, Wildfire following his gaze. “And to you as well, in your endeavors in searching for Matthew.”

Maria nodded. She may not be able to help in what was to come against the Quintessans, but she had other things she needed to do.

Her brother was going to be found.

**Time Break**

Maria sat out on the front steps leading up to her front door, looking up at the sky and thinking about Wildfire and the others. They’d left three days ago for Cybertron, and then parts unknown, and she hadn’t heard a peep from them since they had left.

Other than Wildfire reporting that they were going to be out of communication range before the week was out, but Maria wasn’t as concerned over their movements as she would have been twenty years ago. She knew they could handle themselves well enough without her – they did before she got herself involved, and they did after she disappeared.

If they needed her, she would know.

As for Matthew….

Maria’s brow furrowed in thought. If Matthew hadn’t come back from the World Collision and Continuum Shift, then he might have been on one of the worlds that were involved in it. That was going to take some time to search, and even then, she didn’t know if she would be able to find him.

Or if he would even—

“Excuse me!”

Maria looked up at the sound of the voice and blinked blankly for a moment before her eyes focused on the figure who had spoken.

A man wearing an outfit that screamed “magic,” including a long, flapping red cloak, was coming up the street at a hurried walking pace.

Maria rose to her feet as the man approached, tilting her head slightly.

“You wouldn’t happen to know anyone who answers to the name of Maria, would you?” the man asked. “I’m looking for a young woman who—“

“I’m Maria Carlsdale,” Maria replied without letting him finish. “And you’re Dr. Steven Strange. What brings you to my dimension, Sorcerer Supreme?”

The man cut himself off in surprise, blinking a couple times. Then he shook it off. “Sorry; I should have known not to expect someone older. I’m here about your brother.”

That got Maria’s attention. “You know where he is?”

“Yes.” Strange paused. “He doesn’t remember who he is yet, but he will. And it is going to happen soon. But he needs your presence in order for them to break through completely.”

“Let’s go.”

“Wait.”

Maria paused, halfway off the steps and nearly down onto the sidewalk; Strange was a little taller than she was, which is something she had been expecting.

“I don’t know what the old world was like, but no one remembers it.” Strange paused. “No one, except for one man, but he is being considered clinically insane by the rest of his universe.”

Maria nodded, expression becoming grim. “I see. All right.” She stepped down onto the street and prepared to summon a portal. “Are you going to need a portal back to your dimension? I will need to—“

“I can find my own way back,” Strange replied. “You need to see this new world for yourself; I cannot bring you into the Sanctum. You will need to find it on your own if you require assistance from me.”

Maria nodded. “Understood. Where is Matthew?”

“You’ll know when you see him.”

Maria frowned at that, then nodded. “All right. I’ll see you if I need your help.”

Strange smirked. “That would be a first. A World Jumper needing our assistance.” He moved a few steps back and made a motion with one hand before disappearing from sight.

Maria looked at where he had disappeared for a moment, then snapped her fingers and summoned a portal.

Before she stepped through it, she looked up at the empty house Jack and Miko had given back to her.

“I’ll be back,” Maria murmured quietly.

Then she stepped through the portal and didn’t look back.


End file.
